Nonlinear Dynamics of Interband Cascade Laser Subjected to Optical Feedback

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of the nonlinear dynamics of a long external cavity delayed optical feedback-induced interband cascade laser (ICL). Using the modified Lang–Kobayashi equations, we numerically investigate the effects of some key parameters on the first Hopf bifurcation point of ICL with optical feedback, such as the delay time (τf), pump current (I), linewidth enhancement factor (LEF), stage number (m) and feedback strength (fext). It is found that compared with τf, I, LEF and m have a significant effect on the stability of the ICL. Additionally, our results show that an ICL with few stage numbers subjected to external cavity optical feedback is more susceptible to exhibiting chaos. The chaos bandwidth dependences on m, I and fext are investigated, and 8 GHz bandwidth mid-infrared chaos is observed.

Dynamic and nonlinear properties of mid-infrared interband quantum cascade lasers

“…23 So far, experiments with ICLs under external optical feedback have shown chaos bandwidth of a few hundreds of MHz, 24 but recent findings about the relaxation oscillation frequency in ICLs are promising for chaos with multi-GHz bandwidth. 25 When performing experiments with a Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) detector with a tabulated bandwidth of 800 MHz, we are able to generate flat chaos up to a frequency of 1 GHz, as illustrated in Fig. 3 (a).…”

Generation of broadband optical chaos at mid-infrared wavelength with an interband cascade laser

“…In order to circumvent this limitation, we decided to explore mid-infrared nonlinear dynamics in another structure called interband cascade lasers (ICLs). These lasers rely on cascaded interband technology, which means that a sequence of quantum wells in a designed cascade heterostructure allows achieving stimulated emission at mid-infrared wavelength, and they exhibit relaxation oscillations in the range of GHz, as demonstrated numerically 6 and experimentally. 7 They are promising optical sources for various mid-infrared applications such as greenhouse gases monitoring 8,9 and quantum sensing.…”

“…7 They are promising optical sources for various mid-infrared applications such as greenhouse gases monitoring 8,9 and quantum sensing. 10,11 Recently, it has been shown experimentally 12 that ICLs can generate hyperchaos, which is chaos characterized by several positive Lyapunov exponents, 13 and simulation showed promising dynamics bandwidth, 6 although the influence of the number of stages on the dynamics behavior still needs to be investigated experimentally. The hyperchaos bandwidth in ICLs is typically one order of magnitude larger than that found experimentally in QCLs.…”

Nonlinear Dynamics of Mid-Infrared Interband Cascade Lasers Subject to Variable-Aperture Optical Feedback

“…Under some special operation conditions, optical feedback QCLs can exhibit low-frequency fluctuations [31,32]. As for mid-infrared ICLs, relevant theoretical investigation predicts that an ICL under optical feedback can exhibit chaotic state [33], which has been experimentally demonstrated very recently [34].…”