Nonlinear semiconductor lasers and amplifiers for all-optical information processing

Abstract

The nonlinear properties of semiconductor lasers and laser amplifiers when subject to optical injection are reviewed and new results are presented for multisection lasers, vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers, and surface-emitting lasers. The main underlying material parameters are outlined and the key design approaches are discussed for both edge-emitting and vertical cavity devices. An overview of theoretical modeling approaches is discussed and a summary of key experimental results is presented. The practical use of optically injected edge-emitting and vertical cavity semiconductor lasers and laser amplifiers is illustrated with examples of applications including, among others, optical logic and chaotic communication.

Bistability patterns and nonlinear switching with very high contrast ratio in a 1550 nm quantum dash semiconductor laser

“…Such behaviour is usually referred as anticlockwise nonlinear switching. 1,11,19,20 As the configured detuning is increased, the contrast ratio between switching states reduces. Still, anticlockwise nonlinear switching is observed when the detuning between ML and SL is equal to 0.1 nm, as shown in Fig.…”

“…Higher values of a result in the easier occurrence of bistability with wider hysteresis cycles. 1,11,17 With the QDash laser of this work, higher levels of initial wavelength detuning and bias current are needed to achieve bistability, otherwise nonlinear switching occurs. This is exactly the same behaviour observed in QW VCSELs and VCSOAs, devices also exhibiting low values of a.…”

Controlled inhibition of spiking dynamics in VCSELs for neuromorphic photonics: theory and experiments

“…reduced manufacturing costs and energy consumption, easy integration in 2D/3D arrays, etc. [40] [41], making them ideal for photonic neuronal models and networks. In spite of this, VCSELs have only recently started to be investigated for photonic neurons [26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

Polarization-resolved nonlinear dynamics in long-wavelength single-mode VCSELs subject to orthogonal optical injection

“…The performance of semiconductor lasers can be improved by injecting light emitted by another laser [1][2][3]. The optical injection technique can be used for reducing the laser linewidth, the mode partition noise or for enhancing the modulation bandwidth without modifying the semiconductor laser design.…”