Controlling chaotic fluctuations in semiconductor laser arrays

A control scheme for eliminating the chaotic fluctuations observed in coupled arrays of semiconductor lasers driven high above threshold is introduced. Using the model equations, we show that the output field of the array can be stabilized to a steady in-phase state characterized by a narrow far-field optical beam, Only small local perturbations to the ambient drive current are involved in the control procedure. We carry out a linear stability analysis of the desired synchronized state and find that the number of active unstable modes that are controlled scales with the number of elements in the array. Numerical support for the effectiveness of our proposed control technique in both ring arrays and linear arrays is presented. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America.