Nonlinear Dynamics in Semiconductor Lasers - Abstract

Ackemann, Thorsten

Dynamics of single and coupled laser cavity solitons in a VCSEL with frequency-selective feedback

As for any self-sustained oscillator, phase is a Goldstone mode for laser cavity solitons. Experimental and numerical investigations of spatial solitons in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with frequency-selective feedback demonstrate that spatial disorder of the cavity resonance due to the material-growth process leads to a spread of soliton frequencies that destroy the phase-locked bound states known for temporal laser solitons. Instead, phase-locking of interacting laser cavity solitons pinned by defects is linked to frequency-locking typical of an Adler-like synchronization. For a single soliton, phase-locked operation on several external cavity modes leads to an amplitude oscillation.