Theoretical description of spontaneous pulse formation in a semiconductor microring laser

Abstract

We theoretically describe the spontaneous formation of stable pulses in a GaAs bulk semiconductor microring laser. These pulses are obtained without active or passive mode locking. We show that the parameter regime associated with their existence is limited on one side by the phase instability of the continuous-wave solution, and on the other side by the failure of Lamb's mode-locking criterion. Bistability between the continuous-wave solution and the spontaneous pulses is observed.

Femtosecond high-power spontaneous mode-locked operation in vertical-external cavity surface-emitting laser with gigahertz oscillation

“…Fairly stable SML pulses have also been realized in the diode-pumped Nddoped vanadate miniature lasers [11] and Nd-doped double clad fiber lasers [12]. Even though Lamb's analysis has been extended to various semiconductor laser systems [13,14], the SML operation in VECSELs with single-pulse emission has not been reported until now.…”

Class A mode-locked semiconductor ring laser

“…When material time scales have been taken into account, the slow carriers have been shown to lead to merging of light bullets [10]. Another source of instability for cavity light bullets is the interaction between forward and backward propagating pulses, as underlined in recent reports about temporal cavity solitons in a fiber ring cavity [11] and pulsed solutions in semiconductor microring lasers [12].…”