Spatiotemporal dynamics of broad-area VCSELs under external optical injection: stabilization of emission, pattern formation, and dissipative soliton structures

Abstract

Broad-aperture VCSELs are promising sources for high-speed fiber-optic communication systems and sensors. However, increasing the output power by expanding the aperture inevitably leads to transverse mode competition, spatiotemporal instabilities, and emission chaos. In the present work, based on a modified Maxwell–Bloch model incorporating the Henry linewidth enhancement factor (α-factor), we perform a fundamental study on the suppression of these instabilities and the controlled formation of regular optical structures in broad-aperture VCSELs with external optical injection. The implemented model accounts for the finite linewidth of the gain spectrum and the nonlinear gain coefficient β. Unlike simplified models with linear gain (β = 0), the present approach employs a more realistic quadratic gain model for the population inversion N(1 – βN). It is shown that accounting for this parameter does not negatively affect the efficiency of the optical injection method for emission stabilization. The work also addresses the coherent regime of soliton formation, implemented via writing by a Gaussian optical pulse. A key feature of the soliton dynamics is its critical dependence on the laser operating regime relative to the injection locking point. Above this point, solitons exist on a stable background and merge upon interaction.

Speaker

Yarunova Elizaveta
Samara Branch of Р.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russia

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