Asymmetric and delayed activation of side-modes in multimode semiconductor lasers with optical feedback

6 pages, 4 figures.We study the multimode dynamics of a semiconductor laser with optical feedback operating in the low-frequency fluctuation regime. A multimode extension of the Lang–Kobayashi (LK) model shows, in agreement with experimental observations, that the low-frequency power dropouts exhibited by the main modes are accompanied by sudden, asymmetric, activations of dormant longitudinal side modes. Furthermore, these activations are delayed with respect to the dropouts of the active modes. In order to satisfactorily reproduce both the asymmetric activation of side modes and their delay with respect to the dropouts, the generalized LK model has to include a parabolic gain profile, together with a frequency shift of the gain curve with carrier population.We acknowledge financial support from MCyT (Spain), under projects BFM2000-1108, BMF2001-0341, BFM2001-2159 and BFM2002-04369, and from the EC project ‘OCCULT’ IST-2000-29683. FR is supported by the Inter-University Attraction Pole programme (IAP V/18) of the Belgian government.Peer reviewe