Research Article Vol. 40, No.

19 / October 1 2015 / Optics Letters 4563

10 m/25 Gbps LiFi transmission system based

on a two-stage injection-locked 680 nm VCSEL
transmitter
HAI-HAN LU,* CHUNG-YI LI, CHIEN-AN CHU, TING-CHIEN LU, BO-RUI CHEN, CHANG-JEN WU, AND
DAI-HUA LIN
Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
*Corresponding author: hhlu@ntut.edu.tw

Received 10 August 2015; revised 31 August 2015; accepted 7 September 2015; posted 8 September 2015 (Doc. ID 247646);
published 1 October 2015

A 10 m25 Gbps light-based WiFi (LiFi) transmission system based on a two-stage injection-locked 680 nm
vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) transmitter is proposed. A LiFi transmission system with a data
rate of 25 Gbps is experimentally demonstrated over a 10 m free-space link. To the best of our knowledge, it is the
first time a two-stage injection-locked 680 nm VCSEL transmitter in a 10 m25 Gbps LiFi transmission system
has been employed. Impressive bit error rate performance and a clear eye diagram are achieved in the proposed
systems. Such a 10 m25 Gbps LiFi transmission system provides the advantage of a communication link for
higher data rates that could accelerate the deployment of visible laser light communication. 2015 Optical Society
of America

OCIS codes: (060.2605) Free-space optical communication; (140.3520) Lasers, injection-locked; (250.7260) Vertical cavity surface
emitting lasers.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.40.004563

Free-space optical (FSO) communications are developed to
provide multi-gigabit mobile applications by using flexibility
through free-space transmission. The advantage of FSO com-
munications is that they can benefit from the strengths of both
optical and wireless technologies [13]. For an effective imple-
mentation of FSO communications, however, high-speed data
access is the key concern of system designers. In recent years,
the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) technology
has advanced to such an extent that the 680 nm VCSEL can
be designed as an emitter for high-speed data communications.
The new generation of VCSEL schemes is optimized for modu-
lation bandwidth to few tens of GHz. One of the promising
schemes is the two-stage injection-locked VCSEL. A two-stage
injection-locked VCSEL integrates the optical advantages of
VCSEL and creates an innovative approach of high-speed op-
eration. The feasibility of employing a one-stage injection-
locked technique to deliver a 6 m20 Gbps 16 QAM-OFDM
data signal was demonstrated previously [4]. However, system
performance can be improved further by employing a two-stage
injection-locked technique. A two-stage injection-locked tech-
nique has been used in a two-way passive optical network
to improve the transmission performance of the systems [5].
However, it has not been used as a system performance im-
provement technique in a high-speed light-based WiFi (LiFi)
transmission system. A two-stage injection-locked technique,
which can further enhance the frequency response of VCSEL,
is therefore expected to have excellent transmission perfor-
mance in a high-speed LiFi transmission system [6]. In this
Letter, a 10 m25 Gbps LiFi transmission system based on
a two-stage injection-locked 680 nm VCSEL transmitter is
proposed. We successfully demonstrate that a 25 Gbps data
stream can be transmitted up to a maximum of 10 m free-space
link. For indoor LiFi application, a 10 m free-space link can
satisfy the real implementation requirement. Good bit error
rate (BER) performance and clear eye diagram are obtained in
the proposed systems. The infrared 850 nm near VCSEL-based
FSO communications can be employed to replace the visible
680 nm VCSEL-based ones. However, it is difficult to obtain
good free-space transmission performance because of laser light
misalignment. The infrared light is invisible; yet, it is a chal-
lenge to aim the invisible laser light at the photodiode (PD).
To compare with the infrared 850 nm near VCSEL-based
FSO communications, the visible 680 nm VCSEL-based ones
are attractive not only for their lower free-space attenuation,
but also for providing easier laser light alignment.
The experimental configuration of the proposed
10 m25 Gbps LiFi transmission system that employs a
two-stage injection-locked 680 nm VCSEL transmitter is
shown in Fig. 1. The VCSEL1 (Vixar 680C-0000-G002),
with output power/3 dB bandwidth/wavelength range/color
of 4.6 dBm5.2 GHz681.74682.13 nmred, is directly
modulated by a 25 Gbps pseudorandom binary sequence

0146-9592/15/194563-04$15/0$15.00 2015 Optical Society of America

 4564 Vol. 40, No. 19 / October 1 2015 / Optics Letters
Fig. 1. Experimental configuration of the proposed 10 m25 Gbps LiFi transmission system and the measurement of the frequency response of
the 680 nm VCSEL transmitter-based VLLC links.
(PRBS) of 215 1. For the two-stage injection locking part, the
VCSEL2 (Vixar 680C-0000-G002) is used as the first injection
light source with an injection power level of 4.6 dBm. Light is
injected through a convex lens, a free-space optical isolator, and
a 50:50 beam splitter. The free-space optical isolator has a high
isolation of 38 dB and a low insertion of 0.8 dB. Moreover, the
VCSEL3 (Vixar 680C-0000-G002) is used as the second in-
jection light source, with an injection power level of 6.3 dBm.
Light is also injected through a convex lens, a free-space optical
isolator, and a 50:50 beam splitter. The diverged light emitted
from the two-stage injection-locked VCSEL1 is launched into
the convex lens, transmitted through two beam splitters, fed
into the spatial light modulator (SLM), and focused on the
high-bandwidth PD. The convex lens is utilized to transfer
the divergent beam into the parallel beam, and the SLM is uti-
lized to focus the incoming collimated beam. Over a 10 m
(9
1 m) free-space link, the visible laser light with a data
stream of 25 Gbps reaches the PD. The PD has a detection
wavelength range of 4001100 nm, an active area diameter of
approximately 0.02 mm, and a responsivity of 0.4 mAmW
(at 680 nm). After PD detection, the received data stream is
amplified by a low noise amplifier (LNA) and equalized by
an equalizer. The LNA has a 3 dB bandwidth of 25 GHz, a
small signal gain of 22 dB (measured at 25 GHz), and a
low noise figure of around 4.5 dB. The data stream is then
recovered by the data recovery and fed into a BER tester
(BERT) for BER performance analysis. The LNA is important
for amplification of the 25 Gbps data stream while adding the
least possible amount of noise and distortion. The function
of the equalizer is to compensate for the frequency response,
and, thus, the frequency response of the 25 Gbps data stream
Research Article
is compensated for after equalization. For the data recovery, the
receiving site generates a clock from an approximate frequency
reference; phase aligns to the transitions in the data stream; and,
thus, regenerates the data stream.
Furthermore, the measurement of the frequency response of
the 680 nm VCSEL transmitter-based visible laser light com-
munication (VLLC) links is also illustrated in Fig. 1. The RF
sweep signal (DC30 GHz) generated from a network ana-
lyzer is fed into the VCSEL1. After PD detection, the detected
RF sweep signal is fed into the network analyzer. Thus, the
frequency response of the 680 nm VCSEL transmitter-based
VLLC link is measured under the scenarios of free-running,
one-stage injection locking, and two-stage injection locking.
The laser resonance frequency f 0 can be stated as
g P
f 20  02 ; (1)
4
where g 0 is the gain coefficient, P is the photon density, and p
is the photon lifetime. Two-stage injection locking increases
the photon density significantly, which leads to a significant
improvement of laser resonance frequency. Therefore, the
bandwidth of the VCSEL can be improved greatly.
The frequency responses of the 680 nm VCSEL transmitter-
based VLLC links for free-running, one-stage injection locking,
and two-stage injection locking scenarios are presented in
Fig. 2. For the free-running scenario, the 3 dB bandwidth is
5.2 GHz. For the one-stage injection locking scenario, the
3 dB bandwidth is 12.5 GHz. For the two-stage injection lock-
ing scenario, the 3 dB bandwidth is increased to 26.2 GHz.
This finding means that the two-stage injection-locked 680 nm
VCSEL transmitter is strong enough for 25 Gbps transmission.
 Research Article
Fig. 2. Frequency responses of the 680 nm VCSEL transmitter-
based VLLC links for free-running, one-stage injection locking,
and two-stage injection locking scenarios.
Such a two-stage injection-locked 680 nm VCSEL transmitter
can also be modulated by a 40 Gbps20 GHz 16 QAM-
OFDM data signal; then the transmission data rate can be in-
creased to 40 Gbps. However, an expensive and sophisticated
OFDM analyzer at the receiving site will be required. It will
increase the cost and complexity of the systems.
To obtain high 3 dB bandwidth, the wavelengths of the in-
jected lights should be carefully selected. For a first-stage injec-
tion locking scenario, the wavelength of the master laser
(VCSEL2) should be slightly longer than that of the slave laser
(VCSEL1) to obtain a flat frequency response; that is, positive
wavelength detuning is employed to achieve the first-stage in-
jection locking. For second-stage injection locking scenario,
however, the wavelength of the master laser (VCSEL3) should
be slightly shorter than that of the slave laser (one-stage
injection-locked VCSEL1) to obtain a high-frequency reso-
nance peak; that is, negative wavelength detuning is employed
to achieve the second-stage injection locking. On the other hand,
if negative wavelength detuning with a higher injection power is
employed to achieve the first-stage injection locking and positive
wavelength detuning with a lower injection power is employed to
achieve the second-stage injection locking, then the frequency
response will have almost the same 3 dB bandwidth, but drop
a large value (around 1215 dB) in the middle frequencies. For
the injection locking range, the injection locking range for each
stage is 0.14 to
0.14 nm. Within the locking range, the in-
jection locking behavior happens. Nevertheless, outside the lock-
ing range, severe oscillation occurs.
The optical spectrum of VCSEL1 for the free-running sce-
nario is shown in Fig. 3(a). As VCSEL1 is one-stage injection-
locked, as shown in Fig. 3(b), the optical spectrum of VCSEL1
shifts to a slightly longer wavelength (681.76682.15 nm).
However, as VCSEL1 is two-stage injection-locked, as shown
in Fig. 3(c), the optical spectrum of the one-stage injection-
locked VCSEL1 shifts to a slightly shorter wavelength (681.73
682.12 nm). One key feature of injection locking is that the
injected laser is forced to oscillate at the injection wavelength
instead of the original free-running wavelength. Thereby, the
wavelength range of VCSEL2 is 681.76682.15 nm, and
the wavelength range of VCSEL3 is 681.73682.12 nm.
A functional block diagram of the data recovery is plotted in
Fig. 4, which includes an amplitude/phase compensator and a
data memory. At the receiving site, the data recovery has a
Vol. 40, No. 19 / October 1 2015 / Optics Letters 4565
Fig. 3. Optical spectrum of VCSEL1 for (a) free-running, (b) one-
stage injection locking, and (c) two-stage injection locking scenarios.
stored copy of the data stream. Over a 10 m free-space link,
the received data signal d er n has a distorted amplitude error
aer n and a distorted phase error er n. For amplitude com-
pensation, the output of the amplitude compensator is com-
pared with a stored copy of an to create an amplitude
error. For phase compensation, the output of the phase com-
pensator is compared with a stored copy of n to create a
phase error. Fast feedback updates the amplitude and phase
errors so that the errors are deleted to obtain the data sig-
nal d n.
The measured BER curves of the two-stage injection-locked
VCSEL1 at a data stream of 25 Gbps are shown in Fig. 5(a).
It is clear that, as the free-space transmission distance increases,
the BER value increases as well. There is a trade-off between
the transmission rate and the free-space transmission distance.
Error-free operation can always be achieved for a different
transmission rate with a different free-space transmission dis-
tance. Thereby, a different transmission rate and free-space
transmission distance can be selected according to system re-
quirements. A multimodal VCSEL often introduces modal
noise in the system, and large modal noise leads to system per-
formance degradation. System performance can be further
improved if single-mode VCSEL is utilized. However, as far as
we know, the maximum modulation bandwidth of 680 nm
VCSEL is 5.2 GHz (Vixar 680C-0000-X002, multimodal
VCSEL). Thereby, multimodal VCSEL is employed here to
Data Recovery
Data
Memory
d(n)
+
der (n) Amplitude/Phase
Compensator
error
Fig. 4. Functional block diagram of the data recovery.
 4566 Vol. 40, No. 19 / October 1 2015 / Optics Letters
Fig. 5. Measured BER curves of two-stage injection-locked
VCSEL1 at a data stream of 25 Gbps (a) with/without LNA/
equalizer/data recovery and (b) for BTB and over 4 m7 m
10 m13 m16 m free-space link scenarios.
Fig. 6. Eye diagrams of the 25 Gbps data channel over a 10 m free-
space link (a) without employing LNA/equalizer/data recovery and
(b) with employing LNA/equalizer/data recovery.
realize the transmission system. At a free-space transmission
distance of 10 m, when LNA, equalizer, and data recovery
are not employed, the BER is about 102 . However, when
LNA, equalizer, and data recovery are employed concurrently,
the BER reaches 106 . Furthermore, the measured BER curves
of the two-stage injection-locked VCSEL1 at a data stream
of 25 Gbps for back-to-back (BTB) and over 4 m7 m
10 m13 m16 m free-space link scenarios, as LNA/equalizer/
data recovery are employed simultaneously, are presented in
Fig. 5(b). A power penalty of around 0.4 dB is observed be-
tween BTB and 10 m free-space link scenarios at a BER of
Research Article
106 . The 680 nm laser light has an attenuation of 0.04 dBm
in the free space; yet, the power penalty for the BER measure-
ment is around 0.4 dB (0.04 dBm 10 m  0.4 dB) be-
tween BTB and 10 m free-space link scenarios.
The eye diagrams of the 25 Gbps data channel over a 10 m
free-space link without and with employing LNA/equalizer/
data recovery are displayed in Figs. 6(a) and 6(b), respectively.
Amplitude and phase fluctuations obviously occur [Fig. 6(a)]
as LNA, equalizer, and data recovery are not employed. The
LNA, equalizer, and data recovery are employed simultane-
ously; however, a clear eye diagram [Fig. 6(b)] is achieved be-
cause of amplitude and phase fluctuation suppressions. Further,
the corresponding dynamic extinction ratios of the eye dia-
grams, as shown in Figs. 6(a) and 6(b), are around 2.3 and
13.4 dB, respectively.
A 10 m25 Gbps LiFi transmission system based on a
two-stage injection-locked 680 nm VCSEL transmitter is pro-
posed and demonstrated. Good BER performance and clear
eye diagram are achieved in the proposed LiFi transmission
system. Such an innovative LiFi transmission system possesses
an attractive feature that accelerates the VLLC deployment.
A bidirectional communication would be preferred for LiFi.
Asymmetrical communication is usually deployed in a bidirec-
tional communication. Thereby, a bidirectional communica-
tion for LiFi can be demonstrated by employing a 25 Gbps
LiFi transmission system based on a two-stage injection locking
scheme for down-link transmission, and a 20 Gbps LiFi trans-
mission system based on a one-stage injection locking scheme
for up-link transmission [4].
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