CONTROLLING DYNAMICS IN EXTERNAL-CAVITY LASER-DIODES WITH ELECTRONIC IMPULSIVE DELAYED FEEDBACK

The possibility of controlling chaos in a model of an external-cavity laser diode with optimized impulsive delayed feedback is demonstrated. An examination is made of the application of such feedback by means o f modulation of three different parameters, which determine the laser operation: (i) laser-drive current, (ii) laser-field phase, and (iii) laser-cavity losses. Account is taken of practical constraints arising from a technical delay in application of the control signal. The role s of the phase, width, and shape of the feedback pulses are elucidated for optimizing the control process. The effectiveness of the various methods of applying the control is analyzed by computing domains of co ntrol and finding the optimal conditions for control. It is demonstrat ed also that the preliminary targeting of dynamics to an unstable orbi t by means of the present method is applicable to dynamical systems wi th many degrees of freedom and thus facilitates the process of control ling chaos. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.