Mapping transients in the nonlinear dynamics of an optically injected VCSEL

Abstract

Optical injection is one of the key methods for invoking nonlinear dynamical outputs in laser systems. The system parameters that are used to control the nature of the output from such a system are the injection strength and the frequency detuning between the optical frequency of the free running master and slave lasers. A map of the dynamics can be generated using a number of measurands to facilitate identifying the fundamentally different dynamical regions in the injection-strength/frequency-detuning parameter space. Herein we describe a set of automated algorithms used to establish several measures to identify transients and instabilities in the nonlinear dynamical output of an optically injected vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), for set and unchanging driving parameters.