TITLE:

Injection Locking and Nonlinear Dynamics of Semiconductor Lasers

DATE:

Friday, February 28th, 2014

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 214

SPEAKER:

Dr. Thomas B. Simpson. L-3 Applied Technologies, Inc.

ABSTRACT:

Laser diodes are of continuing interest, both for their diverse applications and as a fundamental test system for laser physics and nonlinear dynamics. Injecting an optical signal into a semiconductor laser to improve its output characteristics was originally proposed and demonstrated in the 1970s. However, the optical injection led to many unexpected dynamic phenomena due to the nonlinear coupling between the optical field and the gain medium of the laser. This interaction modifies the complex dielectric constant (gain and refractive index) and can yield bandwidth enhancement and chirp reduction, tunable-frequency power oscillations, and chaotic output. This talk will review the modeling and experimental demonstration of these phenomena, and highlight recent work demonstrating reduced sensitivity to environmental fluctuations in this nonlinear system.

HOST:

Dr. Jose Castillo

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