Title: Relative intensity noise (RIN) in high-speed vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers for short reach communication

Abstract: The work of this Master degree project has been both experimental and analytical. In the first experimental part of the project, relative intensity noise (RIN) was measured on state-of-the-art high-speed multi-mode 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) intended for next generation short reach data communication standards. Measurements have been performed on devices with different current aperture diameters, at different bias currents, and at both room temperature (RT) and 85°C. The RIN values obtain should be well below the requirements, for example, in the future 32 Gb/s Fibre Channel (32GFC) standard. The second analysis part of the project dealt with extracting values on intrinsic dynamic laser parameters from RIN measurements and comparing to those extracted from corresponding S21 measurements, which is the conventional method. Good agreement was found, and the pros and cons for the two extraction techniques are discussed.