Fast dynamics and spectral properties of a multilongitudinal-mode semiconductor laser: evolution of an ensemble of driven, globally coupled nonlinear modes

摘要

We analyze the fast transient dynamics of a multi-longitudinal modesemiconductor laser on the basis of a model with intensity coupling. Thedynamics, coupled to the constraints of the system and the below-thresholdinitial conditions, imposes a faster growth of the side modes in the initialstages of the transient, thereby leading the laser through a sequence of stateswhere the modal intensity distribution dramatically differs from the asymptoticone. A detailed analysis of the below-threshold, deterministic dynamicalevolution allows us to explain the modal dynamics in the strongly coupledregime where the total intensity peak and relaxation oscillations take place,thus providing an explanation for the modal dynamics observed in the slow,hidden evolution towards the asymptotic state (cf. Phys. Rev. A 85, 043823(2012)). The dynamics of this system can be interpreted as the transientresponse of a driven, globally coupled ensemble of nonlinear modes evolvingtowards an equilibrium state. Since the qualitative dynamics do not depend onthe details of the interaction but only on the structure of the coupling, ourresults hold for a whole class of globally, bilinearly coupled oscillators.