DAMAGE-INDUCED SPECTRAL PERTURBATIONS IN MULTILONGITUDINAL-MODE SEMICONDUCTOR-LASERS

Mechanical stressing has been applied to commercial Fabry-Perot semiconductor lasers to create damage at controlled locations along the optic axis. This damage induces spectral perturbations sinusoidal in wavelength space whose periods are inversely proportional to the distance from the damage to the nearest facet. A firstorder rate equation model has been used to successfully explain the laser spectra. Using this model, a new analytical procedure is described which enables the spatial distribution of damage sites to be extracted from the laser spectrum. Applications and limitations of this new technique are discussed. © 1990 IEEE