Reflective analogue optical link operating issues

The proposed readout of analogue data from CMS tracker will use an optical fibre link. The choice of transmitter/receiver technology, however, has been the subject of intense research and development by the RD23 collaboration. One solution uses passive devices, multi-quantum well modulators, at the detector front end, and continuous wave driving lasers at the readout back end. This system has been tested at Imperial College. We report on the following: problems of noise associated with multimoded behaviour of a degraded laser; measurements of laser wavelength dependence on both drive current and temperature; and modulator reflectance dependence on laser wavelength. We extrapolate the findings to system issues, highlighting the degree of temperature control required of the driving laser.