NONLINEAR DYNAMICS OF SEMICONDUCTOR-LASER ARRAYS - A MEAN-FIELD MODEL

An analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of single-emitter and multi emitter index-guided semiconductor laser arrays is presented. The resu lts are based on a propagation model that involves a pair of coupled n onlinear partial differential equations. The model describes the space -time evolution of the mutually interacting lateral field and carrier density distributions. It includes the effect of carrier diffusion and the effect of carrier-induced antiguiding. Coupling between the emitt ers is provided by the overlapping evanescent fields of the emitters a s well as by the exchange of carriers through carrier diffusion. We sh ow that carrier diffusion plays a significant role in the stability an d the nature of bifurcations. Also we show that carrier-induced antigu iding is the principal reason of instability for single- and two-emitt er arrays. We illustrate a wide variety of instabilities that demonstr ate the richness of the dynamics in these devices.