Dynamics of Semiconductor Laser Subject to Optical Feedback with Linewidth Enhancement Factor and Spontaneous Emission Factor

Abstract

In this article, the dependence of the operation states, dynamics, and noise of laser diodes (LD) with external optical feedback (OFB) on the linewidth enhancement factor (LEF) and spontaneous emission factor (SEF) have been investigated. We systematically studied the classification of the laser dynamics based on the bifurcation diagrams (BDs) of the photon numbers and the relative intensity noise (RIN) spectra at different levels of OFB, LEF, and SEF. The simulation results show that variations in the LEF and SEF lead to significant changes in the laser operation states and dynamics, which vary from continuous wave (CW), pulsation, and chaos states. The Hopf bifurcation (HB) point moves toward increasing/decreasing OFB intensity by increasing/decreasing the SEF/LEF. The laser state becomes more stable through a wide range of OFB by increasing/decreasing the SEF/LEF. The RIN reduces the solitary laser noise level at higher/lower values of SEF/LEF when the laser is operated under OFB. The relaxation frequency of the laser shifts toward higher values by increasing/decreasing the SEF/LEF through most laser states, and the RIN peak is higher than solitary laser noise by four orders of magnitude, especially in the pulsation regions. In the low-frequency region, the RIN is enhanced from one to two orders by reducing the LEF and SEF through laser states.

Keywords

• laser diodes
• optical feedback
• linewidth enhancement factor
• spontaneous emission factor
• CW
• pulsation