Frequency comb with 100 GHz spacing generated by an asymmetric MQW passively mode-locked laser

A L-band two-section AlGaInAs/InP asymmetric multiple quantum well (QW) passively mode-locked laser has been used to generate a frequency comb with a 100 GHz spacing at a central wavelength of 1610 nm. The comb contains 10 optical lines within a −3dB bandwidth of 8.05 nm and 34 optical lines within a −20dB bandwidth of 30 nm. The mode-locked pulse duration was 440 fs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the shortest pulse duration from any directly electrically pumped QW semiconductor mode-locked laser.