Linewidth Sharpening via Polarization-Rotated Feedback in Optically Injected Semiconductor Laser Oscillators

Combining optical injection and polarization-rotated optical feedback in a semiconductor laser can induce self-referenced periodic output that is widely tunable by simply varying the dc-bias points of the system's master and slave lasers. We observed a feedback-induced reduction of the fundamental period-one oscillation linewidth by more than two orders of magnitude relative to the injection-only case. Performance was found to be negatively affected by the interference between the external injection signal and the residual feedback in the same polarization. The nonlinear dynamics of the optically injected semiconductor laser can be used to minimize sensitivity to fluctuations in the operating points. However, the use of the nonlinear dynamics at high oscillation frequencies is limited by the decreasing strength of the interaction between the circulating intracavity optical field and the carrier density.