M. Giudici

Cavity solitons as pixels in semiconductor microcavities

Cavity solitons are localized intensity peaks that can form in a homogeneous background of radiation. They are generated by shining laser pulses into optical cavities that contain a nonlinear medium driven by a coherent field (holding beam). The ability to switch cavity solitons on and off and to control their location and motion by applying laser pulses makes them interesting as potential ‘pixels’ for reconfigurable arrays or all-optical processing units. Theoretical work on cavity solitons has stimulated a variety of experiments in macroscopic cavities and in systems with optical feedback. But for practical devices, it is desirable to generate cavity solitons in semiconductor structures, which would allow fast response and miniaturization. The existence of cavity solitons in semiconductor microcavities has been predicted theoretically, and precursors of cavity solitons have been observed, but clear experimental realization has been hindered by boundary-dependence of the resulting optical patterns—cavity solitons should be self-confined. Here we demonstrate the generation of cavity solitons in vertical cavity semiconductor microresonators that are electrically pumped above transparency but slightly below lasing threshold. We show that the generated optical spots can be written, erased and manipulated as objects independent of each other and of the boundary. Numerical simulations allow for a clearer interpretation of experimental results.

Cavity Soliton Laser based on mutually coupled semiconductor microresonators

We report on experimental observation of localized structures in two mutually coupled broad-area semiconductor resonators, one of which acts as a saturable absorber. These structures coexist with a dark homogeneous background and they have the same properties as cavity solitons without requiring the presence of a driving beam into the system. They can be switched individually on and off by means of a local addressing beam.

All-optical delay line using semiconductor cavity solitons

An all-optical delay line based on the lateral drift of cavity solitons in semiconductor microresonators is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The functionalities of the device proposed as well as its performance is analyzed and compared with recent alternative methods based on the decrease of group velocity in the vicinity of resonances. We show that the current limitations can be overcome using broader devices with tailored material responses.

Cavity solitons in a driven VCSEL above threshold

We experimentally demonstrate the existence and the control of cavity solitons in externally driven vertical-cavity semiconductor lasers above threshold. A model including material polarization dynamics is used to predict and confirm the experimental findings.

Mapping local defects of extended media using localized structures

The stable positions of localized structures depend on spatial gradients in the system parameters and on the local defects of the hosting medium. We propose a general method to disclose and visualize the local defects of the medium structure, otherwise not detected. The method is based on the observation of the spatiotemporal behavior of localized structures in the presence of controlled gradients in the experimental parameters. We experimentally show an application of this method in a broad-area semiconductor vertical cavity surface emitting laser with optical injection. The comparison of the experimental results with numerical simulations shows a very good agreement.

Positioning cavity solitons with a phase mask

Nonlinear interaction between a coherent electric field and a semiconductor medium inside a high Fresnel number cavity may give rise to the formation of cavity solitons. It is theoretically predicted that the position of these structures, mutually independent and bistable, can be controlled by gradients in the injection beam. Using a liquid crystal light valve to spatially modulate the phase of a coherent beam injected into a broad area vertical cavity semiconductor laser, the authors create reconfigurable arrays of cavity solitons. Fast time scales associated with semiconductor lasers and plasticity of localized structures suggest their potential for optical data processing.

Low frequency fluctuations and multimode operation of a semiconductor laser with optical feedback

Abstract We experimentally investigate low frequency fluctuations (LFF) in a Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser with optical feedback from an external mirror. During LFF, the time resolved optical spectrum shows that many longitudinal modes of the solitary laser enter into the transients. After each LFF event, the excited solitary-laser modes recover similarly. However, the recovery for the power in each mode is much slower than the recovery of the total power. The intermode exchange of energy during the recovery indicates that a single-longitudinal mode description of such LFF behavior will not capture important underlying dynamics. The relevance of multimode dynamics is confirmed in a feedback experiment where the external mirror is substituted by a diffraction grating.

Spatio-temporal dynamics in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers excited by fast electrical pulses

Abstract We have measured the time average spatial intensity distribution and the spatio-temporal evolution of the spectrally resolved radiation emitted from broad-area vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) when pumped by a fast current pulse. We show that an intrinsic symmetry break exists due to geometrical asymmetry of the device structure and that the frequency separation between different modes allows the evaluation of the asymmetry factor. The space–time behavior shows the appearance of higher-order modes coexisting or alternating in time. The dynamical behavior shows a chirping in frequency.

Mode-switching in semiconductor lasers

In this paper, we experimentally analyze the modal dynamics of quantum-well semiconductor lasers. Modal switching is the dominant feature for semiconductor lasers that exhibit two or several active longitudinal modes in their time-averaged optical spectrum. In quantum-well lasers, these dynamics involve a periodic switching among several longitudinal modes, which follows a well-determined sequence from the bluest to the reddest mode in the optical spectrum. This feature is radically different from the well-known noise-driven mode-hopping occurring in bulk lasers which involves only two main modes. We analyze the differences in modal dynamics for these two kinds of laser by comparing the modal switching statistics and by studying the effects of noise and modulation in the pumping current.

How Laser Localized Structures evolve out of Passive Mode-Locking

We investigate the relationship between passive mode-locking and the formation of temporal localized structures in the output of a laser, allowing for individual pulse addressing and arbitrary low repetition rates.