Synchronization between optically injected semiconductor lasers on undamped relaxation
Résumé
Seeding light from a laser into the cavity of a second one is a simple experiment largely encountered in optical domain (Stover, H.L., Steier, W.H.: Appl. Phys. Lett. 8, 91–93 (1966); Lang, R.: IEEE J. Quant. Elect. 18(6), 976–983 (1982)). With an unidirectional coupling, optical injection is a basic tool to study synchronization process between oscillators. The dynamics induced in this experiment have been extensively described, theoretically and experimentally (Simpson, T.B. et al.: Quant. Semiclassical Opt. 9(5), 765–784 (1997); Wieczorek S.: Opt. Commun. 172, 279–295 (1999); Blin, S.: Comptes Rendus de la Phys. 4(6), 687–699 (2003)) but mainly when the seeded light is a continuous wave (CW). In this paper, we describe the synchronization on an undamped relaxation regime. In order to study the degree of correlation between the two synchronized lasers (TL and RL), we use a cascade of two optical injections (Guignard, C.: Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics—the Europeen Quant. Electronics Conference (CLEO-EQEC), Munich (Germany), EC1M (2003)) thus three lasers: Master-transmitter laser (TL)-receiver laser (RL). The seeding by a field showing undamped relaxations can be directly compared with the optical injection by a CW signal, especially when the injected power and the detuning between the TL and RL frequencies are varied. Synchronization on undamped relaxation are shown to occur at values of the optical injected power and detuning, for which the RL is in the locked or wave-mixing regime when it is seeded by a CW. However, additional tongues of synchronization also exist at detuning equal to the relaxation oscillation frequency (ROF).