Characteristics of switching dynamics in a semiconductor-based cavity-soliton laser

Abstract

The switching behavior of a semiconductor cavity soliton laser is experimentally investigated, based on a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with frequency-selective feedback. In particular, we show the effect of frequency detuning between cavity solitons and the external injection, the temporal dynamics during ignition and erasure, and characterize the necessary injection pulse width versus its power for successful switching.

Chapter 6 Fundamentals and Applications of Spatial Dissipative Solitons in Photonic Devices

“…rier population. Switching was quantitatively studied in Tanguy et al (2007). Minimal switching power and pulse duration were observed for a WB with a frequency about 8 GHz higher than the one of the emerging LCS, which seems to coincide with the (low-amplitude) longitudinal resonance of the VCSEL.…”

Compensation of spatial inhomogeneities in a cavity soliton laser using a spatial light modulator

“…However, a more intense SLM beam would be able to affect CS threshold further off-resonance. This is supported by observations of switch-on thresholds of CS with an external, pulsed laser beam which demonstrate that one can trade detuning versus power [7].…”

“…Among these, spatial dissipative solitons in broad-area semiconductor microcavities (cavity solitons or CS) received considerable interest [3][4][5] because semiconductor devices seem to be particulary suited for all-optical processing due to their high nonlinearity, established, compact technology and relatively fast fundamental timescales. Further recent progress lead to the realization of CS in self-sustained semiconductor lasers without the need for an optical input of high temporal and spatial coherence [7][8][9][10][11][12]. In such a system the CS act as small coherent lasing islands -microlasers -, each of which is bistable between on and off states, and may be switched on and off independently by an external optical control beam [7,8,10].…”

“…Further recent progress lead to the realization of CS in self-sustained semiconductor lasers without the need for an optical input of high temporal and spatial coherence [7][8][9][10][11][12]. In such a system the CS act as small coherent lasing islands -microlasers -, each of which is bistable between on and off states, and may be switched on and off independently by an external optical control beam [7,8,10]. As a self-localized state, a CS can exist anywhere in a translationally invariant system but couples on the other hand easily to any perturbation of the translational symmetry leading to a drift motion which only stops at a local extremum of the perturbation where the coupling of the odd translational mode of the CS to the (locally) even perturbation vanishes [5,[13][14][15][16].…”

Response of laser-localized structures to external perturbations in coupled semiconductor microcavities

“…In laser systems, there is no such possibility. Some previous observations of annihilation of CSs in laser systems were based on spatial degrees of freedom [23], but others have suggested the role of thermal processes [34] or only the local creation of additional carriers [22]. In the following, we perform time-resolved measurements which show that the annihilation of a structure can be achieved within the 10 ns following the end of the perturbation, which indicates that thermal processes (which would be much slower) are not necessary for the annihilation of a structure.…”