Dynamics of Semiconductor Lasers with Optoelectronic Feedback and Modulation

Abstract

One of the characteristics of semiconductor lasers that is different from other lasers is the direct pump modulation. The disturbance to the injection current is an additional degree of freedom. Therefore, the disturbance to the injection current induces instabilities to semiconductor lasers and instabilities and chaotic behaviors are indeed observed by the injection current modulation. Another example of disturbances to the injection current is optoelectronic feedback, in which the output from the laser is once detected by a photodetector and, then, the detected photocurrent is fed back into the injection current. A typical feature of instabilities induced by disturbances to the injection current are the regular and irregular pulsations in the laser output. In this chapter, we discuss instabilities and chaotic dynamics of optoelectornic feedback and injection current modulation in semiconductor lasers.