M. San Miguel

Polarization properties of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Polarization-state selection, polarization-state dynamics, and polarization switching of a quantum-well vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) for the lowest order transverse spatial mode of the laser is explored using a recently developed model that incorporates material birefringence, the saturable dispersion characteristic of semiconductor physics, and the sensitivity of the transitions in the material to the vector character of the electric field amplitude. Three features contribute to the observed linearly polarized states of emission: linear birefringence, linear gain or loss anisotropies, and an intermediate relaxation rate for imbalances in the populations of the magnetic sublevels. In the absence of either birefringence or saturable dispersion, the gain or loss anisotropies dictate stability for the linearly polarized mode with higher net gain; hence, switching is only possible if the relative strength of the net gain for the two modes is reversed. When birefringence and saturable dispersion are both present, there are possibilities of bistability, monostability, and dynamical instability, including switching by destabilization of the mode with the higher gain to loss ratio in favor of the weaker mode. We compare our analytical and numerical results with recent experimental results on bistability and switchings caused by changes in the injection current and changes in the intensity of an injected optical signal.

Adiabatic Elimination for Systems of Brownian Particles with Nonconstant Damping Coefficients

We discuss the problem of eliminating the momentum variable in the phase space Langevin equations for a system of Brownian particles in two related situations: (i) position-dependent damping and (ii) existence of hydrodynamic interactions. We discuss the problems associated with the conventional elimination and we develop an alternative elimination procedure, in the Lagevin framework, which leads to the correct Smoluchowski equation. We give a heuristic argument on the basis of stochastic differential equations for the Smoluchowski limit and establish rigorously the limit for the general case of position-dependent friction and diffusion coefficents.

Conservation laws for the voter model in complex networks

We consider the voter model dynamics in random networks with an arbitrary distribution of the degree of the nodes. We find that for the usual node-update dynamics the average magnetization is not conserved, while an average magnetization weighted by the degree of the node is conserved. However, for a link-update dynamics the average magnetization is still conserved. For the particular case of a Barabasi-Albert scale-free network, the voter model dynamics leads to a partially ordered metastable state with a finite-size survival time. This characteristic time scales linearly with system size only when the updating rule respects the conservation law of the average magnetization. This scaling identifies a universal or generic property of the voter model dynamics associated with the conservation law of the magnetization.

A colored-noise approach to Brownian motion in position space. Corrections to the Smoluchowski equation

The contraction of the description of Brownian motion from phase space to position space is discussed by means of non-Markovian Langevin equations in position space. A Fokker-Planck equation valid for any time is derived for the harmonic oscillator, and the overdamped, critical, and infradamped cases are discussed. For anharmonic potentials systematic corrections to the Smoluchowski equation are derived. Such corrections can be interpreted in this context as an expansion in powers of the correlation time of the “colored” stochastic noise appearing in the Langevin equation. The breakdown of the Fokker-Planck approximation is also discussed.

Mechanisms of polarization switching in single-transverse-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers: thermal shift and nonlinear semiconductor dynamics.

We analyze polarization switching in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, taking into account a proper semiconductor frequency-dependent complex susceptibility and spin-flip processes. Thermal effects are included as a varying detuning, and gain differences arise from birefringence splitting. We find that, for large birefringence, gain differences between the two linearly polarized modes are preponderant, and switching occurs owing to thermal shift. For small birefringence polarization switching from the high- to the low-gain mode occurs owing to the combined effect of birefringence and semiconductor phase-amplitude-coupled dynamics for a finite value of the carrier spin-flip rate.

Neighborhood models of minority opinion spreading

Abstract.We study the effect of finite size population in Galam’s model [Eur. Phys. J. B 25, 403 (2002)] of minority opinion spreading and introduce neighborhood models that account for local spatial effects. For systems of different sizes N, the time to reach consensus is shown to scale as

Self-pulsating semiconductor lasers: theory and experiment

\ln N

Local versus global interactions in nonequilibrium transitions: A model of social dynamics

in the original version, while the evolution is much slower in the new neighborhood models. The threshold value of the initial concentration of minority supporters for the defeat of the initial majority, which is independent of N in Galam’s model, goes to zero with growing system size in the neighborhood models. This is a consequence of the existence of a critical size for the growth of a local domain of minority supporters.

Polarization and transverse-mode dynamics of gain-guided vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We report detailed measurements of the pump-current dependency of the self-pulsating frequency of semiconductor CD lasers. A distinct kink in this dependence is found and explained using a rate-equation model. The kink denotes a transition between a region where the self-pulsations are weakly sustained relaxation oscillations and a region where Q-switching takes place. Simulations show that spontaneous emission noise plays a crucial role in the cross-over.

Challenges in complex systems science

A nonequilibrium system of locally interacting elements in a lattice with an absorbing order-disorder phase transition is studied under the effect of additional interacting fields. These fields are shown to produce interesting effects in the collective behavior of this system. Both for autonomous and external fields, disorder grows in the system when the probability of the elements to interact with the field is increased. There exists a threshold value of this probability beyond which the system is always disordered. The domain of parameters of the ordered regime is larger for nonuniform local fields than for spatially uniform fields. However, the zero field limit is discontinous. In the limit of vanishingly small probability of interaction with the field, autonomous or external fields are able to order a system that would fall in a disordered phase under local interactions of the elements alone. We consider different types of fields which are interpreted as forms of mass media acting on a social system in the context of Axelrods model for cultural dissemination.