Stabilization of spatiotemporally chaotic semiconductor laser arrays by means of delayed optical feedback

Abstract

A stabilization scheme for suppression of spatiotemporal instabilities in semiconductor laser arrays is presented. Using relevant time scales obtained from an application of a complex Karhunen-Loève decomposition allows tailoring delayed optical feedback such that stabilization is achieved via destructive interference in the higher-order transverse modes conveying the instabilities. Successful stabilization of previously spatiotemporally chaotic optical near fields towards stable continuous wave output is demonstrated in two-, three- and five-stripe arrays. Linear stability analysis of a system of ordinary differential equations obtained by projection onto the relevant eigenmodes of the two-stripe laser shows that stabilization can be achieved in a wide parameter range. Our analytical results are in good agreement with numerical simulations.