Coherent instabilities in a semiconductor laser with fast gain recovery Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We report the observation of a coherent multimode instability in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs), which is driven by the same fundamental mechanism of Rabi oscillations as the elusive Risken-Nummedal-Graham-Haken (RNGH) instability predicted 40 years ago for ring lasers. The threshold of the observed instability is significantly lower than in the original RNGH instability, which we attribute to saturable-absorption nonlinearity in the laser. Coherent effects, which cannot be reproduced by standard laser rate equations, can play therefore a key role in the multimode dynamics of QCLs, and in lasers with fast gain recovery in general. 2007 The American Physical Society.

published proceedings

  • Physical Review A

author list (cited authors)

  • Wang, C. Y., Diehl, L., Gordon, A., Jirauschek, C., Krtner, F. X., Belyanin, A., ... Capasso, F.

citation count

  • 105

complete list of authors

  • Wang, Christine Y||Diehl, L||Gordon, A||Jirauschek, C||Kärtner, FX||Belyanin, A||Bour, D||Corzine, S||Höfler, G||Troccoli, M||Faist, J||Capasso, Federico

publication date

  • March 2007