(hbcu/mi) Ultralow Noise Monolithic Quantum Dot Photonic Oscillators

three different nanostructured semiconductor lasers were studied – the quantum dot passively mode-locked laser, the dual-mode quantum dot laser and the optically-injected quantum dot distributed feedback laser. The key milestones achieved were: 1) the use of optical feedback to reduce the timing jitter of the pulsed lasers from 295 fs/cycle to 32 fs/cycle, 2) experimental determination of the optimum temperature range and absorber-to-gain length ratio, 3) Delay Differential Equation modeling to study the nonlinear dynamics specific to the quantum dot medium, (including the derivation of new equations for this purpose), 4) the demonstration of dual-mode lasing in a quantum dot distributed feedback device using optical injection to generate microwave, mm-wave and THz signals and 5) the generation of relaxation oscillations over a continuous 5 octaves (below 1 GHz to 40 GHz) in an optically-injected quantum dot laser.