Nonlinear Dynamics in Semiconductor Lasers - Abstract

Kelleher, Bryan

Optothermal effects in optically injected quantum dot lasers

Quantum dot lasers show many of the characteristics of class A lasers when undergoing optical injection. Nonetheless, they are not truly class A but occupy an intermediate region between weakly damped, class B conventional semiconductor lasers and true class A lasers. One particularly interesting feature is the presence of a phase-locked bistability. We show that optothermal influences can break this bistability and instead yield a square-wave regime analogous to the Fitzhugh-Nagumo system.