Return-beam-induced oscillations in self-coupled semiconductor lasers

When a stripe-geometry heterostructure GaAlAs laser is irradiated by its own output beam, oscillations in the 1–100 MHz range are generated in the laser, and the frequency f of the oscillation varies with the length 2L of the optical path of the beam returned as f = α(c/2L), with α ≪ 1, where c is the velocity of light.