Dw. Sukow et al., Picosecond intensity statistics of semiconductor lasers operating in the low-frequency fluctuation regime, PHYS REV A, 60(1), 1999, pp. 667-673
We present detailed statistical investigations of the irregular fast pulsin
g behavior present in the dynamics of semiconductor lasers with delayed opt
ical feedback operating in the low-frequency fluctuation and coherence coll
apse regimes. We demonstrate that the probability density distributions of
the laser intensity on a picosecond time scale are essentially independent
of the number of optical modes involved in the laser emission, using two co
mplementary high-resolution experimental measurement systems: a high-bandwi
dth sampling digitizer and a single-shot streak camera. The experimental re
sults are supported by numerical studies using the single-mode Lang-Kobayas
hi equations, as well as a multimode extension of the model. Furthermore, w
e also demonstrate that gain saturation and coexisting attractors can cause
substantial qualitative changes of the probability density distribution.