Dynamical characteristics of an optically injected semiconductor laser

The dependence of the dynamical characteristics of an optically injected semiconductor laser on its intrinsic and operational parameters are studied. The effect of the nonlinear gain is to suppress the instability of the system. The differential gain effect makes the system be easily driven into instability by an externally injected field. Variations in the spontaneous carrier relaxation rate are found to have little effect on the dynamics of the system. The linewidth enhancement factor is observed to strongly affect the dynamical behavior of the system. A large linewidth enhancement factor leads to rich nonlinear dynamics of the system. The influence of the injection current on the dynamics of the system is indirect through the differential gain effect and the nonlinear gain effect. The balance of the competition between these two effects determines the dynamical behavior of the system when the injection current is varied. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.