Antiphase dynamics in multimode semiconductor lasers with optical feedback

摘要

We study the dynamics of multimode semiconductor lasers with optical feedback. Our model takes into account explicitly spatial effects, which are included by considering spatial profiles for N longitudinal modes coupled to the space-dependent gain. We also consider the effect of carrier diffusion. We find that in the weak feedback regime the longitudinal modes display antiphase oscillations that lead to a nearly constant output intensity. This result is largely independent of the value of the diffusion coefficient. For larger feedback we observe in-phase fast oscillations at a frequency close to the relaxation oscillation frequency of the solitary laser. In these two regimes, the total output of the laser has the properties of a single-mode laser for nondispersive applications. We assess the validity of an existing approximation scheme that has dealt with spatial inhomogeneities by expanding the carrier density into a truncated hierarchy of moments. We demonstrate that this approximation is very good when the underlying carrier diffusion is fast, thus leading to a weakly developed carrier grating.