While the time jitter of gain-switched multimode Fabry–Pérot lasers is relatively low, single-mode distributed feedback (DFB) lasers suffer from an inherently larger time jitter, due to the different photon statistics. Here, we determine the time jitter of a mulitmode Fabry–Pérot (FP) laser (425 fs), a single-mode DFB laser (2.2 ps), and the FP laser switched to single-mode pulsing by self-seeding (210 fs). Thus self-seeding is superior by one order of magnitude to gain switching of DFB lasers, which is presently used for generation of single-mode pulses in the low ps range. A numerical model based on multimode rate equations including Langevin terms for the spontaneous emission shows good agreement with the experimental results.

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Electrically wavelength tunable single-mode laser pulses with a width (FWHM) of about 30 ps were achieved by gain-switching and self-seeding of a 1.5 μm Fabry-Perot laser diode. Using a novel setup with a short, wavelength depending cavity length, switching between different wavelengths is demonstrated here at a frequency of 10 kHz. The buildup of stable single mode emission takes less than 7 roundtrips thus showing the potential of this approach for fast electrical wavelength switching in the tens-of-MHz range.

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