Bruno HOUSSAY, Hideo ITOH and Takehiko HIDAKA

Optical Information Section, Optoelectronic Division, Electrotechnical Laboratory, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305 Japan

(Accepted September 6, 1994)

Stable and precise pulsations are generated by an AlGaAs self-pulsating laser diode under strong feedback in an external cavity. Self-pulsation frequency dependency versus bias current is reduced from 159 MHz/mA to less than 7 MHz/mA, while the equivalent Q factor of the pulsation, defined in analogy with the Q factor of electrical pulsation, is enhanced by more than an order of magnitude from about 110 to more than 1,750 at 532 MHz.

Key words : self-pulsating lasers, optical clock