Higher-order QAM data transmission using a high-coherence hybrid Si/III–V semiconductor laser

We experimentally demonstrate the use of a high-coherence hybrid silicon (Si)/III–V semiconductor laser as the light source for a transmitter generating 20 Gbaud 16- and 64-quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) data signals over an 80 km single-mode fiber (SMF) link. The hybrid Si/III–V laser has a measured Schawlow–Townes linewidth of ∼10 kHz, which is achieved by storing modal optical energy in low-loss Si, rather than the relatively lossy III–V materials. We measure a received bit error rate (BER) of 4.1 × 10⁻³ when transmitting the 64-QAM data over an 80 km SMF using the hybrid Si/III–V laser. Furthermore, we measure a BER of <1 × 10⁻⁴ with the Viterbi–Viterbi digital carrier phase recovery method when transmitting the 16-QAM data over an 80 km SMF using the hybrid Si/III–V laser. This performance is achieved at power penalties lower than those obtained with an exemplary distributed feedback laser and slightly higher than those with an exemplary narrow-linewidth external cavity laser.