Bistability conditions between lasing and non-lasing states for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with frequency-selective optical feedback

This paper gives analytical treatment and experimental details on on/off-bistability in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with frequency-selective feedback by a grating. In particular, the conditions for the coexistence of lasing and nonlasing states and an abrupt turn-on behaviour at threshold are derived using an envelope approximation. The theoretical and experimental results are in satisfactory agreement

Self-localized structures in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with external feedback

In this paper, we analyze a model of broad area vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers subjected to frequency-selective optical feedback. In particular, we analyze the spatio-temporal regimes arising above threshold and the existence and dynamical properties of cavity solitons. We build the bifurcation diagram of stationary self-localized states, finding that branches of cavity solitons emerge from the degenerate Hopf bifurcations marking the homogeneous solutions with maximal and minimal gain. These branches collide in a saddle-node bifurcation, defining a maximum pump current for soliton existence that lies below the threshold of the laser without feedback. The properties of these cavity solitons are in good agreement with those observed in recent experiments

Transverse patterns and length-scale selection in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with a large square aperture

The length-scale selection in complex emission patterns spontaneously arising in broad-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers is studied experimentally. The wavenumbers of individual tilted wave modes show a square-root-like dependence on the detuning between emission frequency and longitudinal cavity resonance, in accordance with theoretical expectations. The absolute values of the wavenumbers are in good qualitative agreement with calculations taking into account the reflection properties of the Bragg reflectors and dispersion