Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
Optical bistability of Fabry-Perot LSA with inhomogeneous broadening
Dinh Van Hoang, Phung Quoc Bao
Abstract
The optical bistability (OB) behavior of single-mode Fabry- Perot lasers containing saturable absorber (LSA) is presented on the basis of the rate equations with allowance for spontaneous emission and spatial hole-burning. Special attention is paid to the case of dominant inhomogeneous broadening in both Lorentzian and Gaussian models. The OB occurrence conditions are clearly displayed in phase diagrams. The influence of the main LSA parameters on OB characteristics as well as on OB curves' stability are investigated in detail. Some practical suggestions for optimizing the bistable operation in LSA are also given.