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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Controllable frequency hysteresis in semiconductor lasers

Samuel B. Alves, Hugo L. D. de S. Cavalcante, Martine Chevrollier, Thierry Passerat de Silans, Marcos Oriá

Published Feb 9, 2016• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Optical feedback with orthogonal polarization enables frequency sweep of semiconductor lasers and leads to frequency bistability when a resonant medium is used to filter the reinjected radiation. Here, we explore a configuration with two lasers coupled through mutual injection. Each laser injects and receives light with a polarization orthogonal to the plane of emission. Both injections are independently filtered by a resonant atomic vapor. We show that this more versatile version also exhibits bistable states, and that it is possible to reduce the laser frequency jitter as well as to invert its frequency hysteresis cycle on demand (from counterclockwise to clockwise and vice versa). Experimental demonstration is done with diode lasers emitting around 780 nm, using Rb thermal vapors as nonlinear filters.

DOI
10.1364/josab.33.000328

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Optical feedback with orthogonal polarization enables frequency sweep of semiconductor lasers and leads to frequency bistability when a resonant medium is used to filter the reinjected radiation. Here, we explore a configuration with two lasers coupled through mutual injection. Each laser injects and receives light with a polarization orthogonal to the plane of emission. Both injections are independently filtered by a resonant atomic vapor. We show that this more versatile version also exhibits bistable states, and that it is possible to reduce the laser frequency jitter as well as to invert its frequency hysteresis cycle on demand (from counterclockwise to clockwise and vice versa). Experimental demonstration is done with diode lasers emitting around 780 nm, using Rb thermal vapors as nonlinear filters.
Orthogonally polarized optical feedback has been proven to act on the frequency of semiconductor lasers. The coupling of this feedback to a nonlinear filter results in bistability for the frequency of the laser output [Phys. Rev. Lett.94, 173902 (2005)]. This phenomenon opens the way to the development of all-optical devices such as a switch between frequency states of the optical emission. For demonstrating this particular application we use an AsGaAl monomode laser emitting around 852 nm, together with a warm atomic cesium vapor as a resonant filter. The output frequency state of the switch is determined by two different frequencies of a control laser, with each control frequency changing the switch frequency in only one direction.
We analyze the dynamics of semiconductor lasers radiation frequency when these lasers are subject to different conditions of optical feedback, and we demonstrate how it is possible to control the emission frequency using the different configurations explored. In the first system studied a semiconductor laser is fed back with light which polarization is orthogonal to the output polarization, spectrally filtered by a cesium atomic vapor. This system, besides presenting an effective technique to stabilize the laser frequency and reduce the laser linewidth, was the first to exhibit frequency bistable and multistable optical regimes with amplitude practically constant. This unique feature opens the way for applications in all-optical FM logical devices. The bistable and multistable regimes are interpreted through a phenomenological model, and, for the bistable regime, we discuss a rate equation model, built taking in account thermal effects and gain saturation. We also present an all-optical frequency switch, the first of his kind. The second system is used to investigate the behavior of the emission frequency of a semiconductor laser with an external cavity, inside which is placed an atomic filter. For different values of the injection current we observe the laser frequency locking in the atomic line, bistability and reproducible frequency instabilities.
We have measured optical power and wavelength polarization bistability in a 1550 nm-Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) subject to orthogonally-polarized optical injection into the orthogonal polarization of the fundamental transverse mode. Optical bistability with very wide hysteresis cycles, up to four times wider than previously reported results has been measured for both the optical power and wavelength domain. We also report the experimental observation of three different shapes of polarization bistability, anticlockwise, clockwise and X-Shape bistability, all of them with wide hysteresis cycles. This rich variety of behaviour at the important wavelength of 1550 nm offers promise for the use of VCSELs for all-optical signal processing and optical switching/routing applications.
The basic mechanisms of the polarization switching in vectorial bistable lasers are studied both theoretically and experimentally versus internal parameters. In particular, by scanning the frequency of a gas laser with two linearly polarized eigenstates, two quite different flipping processes with hysteresis occur according to the linear-phase-anisotropy value of the cavity. Indeed, when the anisotropy increases, rotation and inhibition mechanisms appear successively. The variations of the hysteresis loop for different anisotropy and excitation values are theoretically found to be opposed in the two processes. Additional evolutions of the polarization, such as multiple switchings in the inhibition mechanism and ``hybrid'' hysteresis loops, are predicted. The experiments, essentially performed on a monomode 3.39-\ensuremath{\mu}m $^{3}\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}^{20}$Ne laser containing an adjustable linear phase anisotropy, confirm the existence of the two processes and their corresponding properties. These processes may also occur in other quasi-isotropic lasers versus other internal parameters, such as, for instance, the injection current in semiconductor lasers. In this case the TE and TM modes flip only in the inhibition mechanism when the bistability conditions are satisfied. The knowledge of the basic flipping mechanisms in the laser itself enables us to understand and realize the external optical-polarization control by an anisotropic feedback (one-frequency systems). Induced-rotation and induced-inhibition mechanisms are then theoretically predicted and experimentally verified. Sensitive optical gates are realized by varying the feedback phase in both processes.