Numerical bifurcation analysis of the traveling wave model of multisection semiconductor lasers (Q2492245)

This paper presents a method for reducing the traveling-wave (TW) model for multisection semiconductor lasers to an approximating low-dimensional system of ordinary differential equations for the amplitudes of a few dominant cavity modes, which can then be analyzed with classical numerical continuation tools. The method is applied to carry out a bifurcation study of a three-section distributed-feedback (DFB) laser. The TW model is introduced in Sec. 2; it is a hyperbolic system of linear spatially unidimensional first-order partial differential equations for the laser field in each section, coupled to slowly-varying nonlinear ordinary differential equations that govern the carrier densities. The reduction to the mode-approximation system, explained in Sec. 3, involves the numerical computation, as solutions of an eigenvalue problem, of the damping and angular frequency of each of the cavity modes retained in the approximation, as functions of the instantaneous carrier densities (and of any variable parameter of the system). From these functions, the coefficients of the reduced model can be determined. In section 4, a bifurcation study by numerical continuation is carried out for a 2-, 3-, and 4-mode reduction, and those predictions are compared to the results of direct integration of the full model. Reasons for discrepancies when the number of retained modes is too low are discussed. In section 5, a sinusoidal current modulation is introduced in the model. The four-mode reduction is used to determine, by numerical continuation, the conditions of frequency locking of the laser on the external modulation. This is complemented by a study of the quality of the pulsations by direct integration of the full model.