Semiconductor laser dynamics for feedback from a finite-penetration-depth phase-conjugate mirror

Most of the previous treatments of semiconductor lasers subject to optical feedback from a phase-conjugate mirror (PCM) have assumed that the PCM responds instantaneously. Furthermore, the mechanism responsible for phase conjugation does not usually enter into the analysis. In this paper, we derive the time-dependent reflectivity of a PCM created through nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a Kerr-type nonlinear medium. The resulting laser dynamics are compared with the case of the ideal PCM, as a function of the external-cavity length, the PCM reflectivity, and the PCM interaction depth. The PCM with a significant interaction depth tends to suppress otherwise chaotic output and produces pulses whose repetition rate is tunable by varying PCM reflectivity. At high feedback levels, it stabilizes the laser output. We use the circle-map formalism to explain our numerical results.

[1]  Hartmut Haug,et al.  Theory of laser diodes with weak optical feedback. I. Small-signal analysis and side-mode spectra , 1993 .

[2]  Forman S. Acton,et al.  Numerical methods that work , 1970 .

[3]  R. Fisher.  Optical Phase Conjugation , 1983 .

[4]  Govind P. Agrawal,et al.  Optical-feedback-induced chaos and its control in multimode semiconductor lasers , 1994 .

[5]  Daan Lenstra,et al.  Semiconductor laser coupled to a finite-response time phase-conjugate mirror , 1996, Photonics West.

[6]  A. Chraplyvy,et al.  Regimes of feedback effects in 1.5-µm distributed feedback lasers , 1986 .

[7]  Jesper Mørk,et al.  Chaos in semiconductor lasers with optical feedback: theory and experiment , 1992 .

[8]  D. Lenstra,et al.  Theory of a diode laser with phase-conjugate feedback. , 1992, Optics letters.

[9]  J. Mørk,et al.  Stability analysis and the route to chaos for laser diodes with optical feedback , 1990, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[10]  G. Agrawal,et al.  Importance of self-induced carrier-density modulation in semiconductor lasers , 1992, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[11]  T. Shimura,et al.  Injection locking and mode switching of a diode laser with a double phase-conjugate mirror. , 1993, Optics letters.

[12]  C. C. Wang,et al.  Nonlinear optics. , 1966, Applied optics.

[13]  Agrawal,et al.  Chaotic dynamics of semiconductor lasers with phase-conjugate feedback. , 1994, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[14]  G P Agrawal,et al.  Mode locking in semiconductor lasers by phase-conjugate optical feedback. , 1995, Optics letters.

[15]  G P Agrawal,et al.  Effect of phase-conjugate feedback on semiconductor laser dynamics. , 1991, Optics letters.

[16]  Albert Libchaber,et al.  Quasi-Periodicity and Dynamical Systems: An Experimentalist's View , 1988 .

[17]  Nathalie McCarthy,et al.  Influence of phase conjugate optical feedback on the emission properties of visible low-power diode lasers , 1993 .

[18]  N Cyr,et al.  Laser-diode frequency control by resonant phase-conjugate reflection from an atomic vapor. , 1991, Optics letters.

[19]  Agrawal,et al.  Effect of phase-conjugate feedback on the noise characteristics of semiconductor lasers. , 1992, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[20]  K. Petermann,et al.  A simple analytic expression for the stable operation range of laser diodes with optical feedback , 1990 .

[21]  Hartmut Haug,et al.  Theory of laser diodes with weak optical feedback. II. Limit-cycle behavior, quasi-periodicity, frequency locking, and route to chaos , 1993 .

[22]  Daan Lenstra,et al.  Semiconductor lasers with optical injection and feedback , 1995 .