Instabilities and Noise in Semiconductor Lasers

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The coherence properties of semiconductor lasers determine the limits of their application in optical communication channels, computation and storage. Before these limits can be enhanced, the sources of laser instability and noise need to be understood. Through novel statistical experiments and theoretical calculations, we propose to discover new principles for the development of stable lasers and noise reduction by geometric reconfiguration, manipulation of material properties, and the application of electronic feedback techniques. We will probe correlations between operating parameters and laser response over time scales from seconds to picoseconds. We will study (i) reflection induced instabilities, (ii) mode partition noise and mode-hopping, (iii) the linewidth (power dependent and independent) and dynamics of solitary and external cavity semiconductor lasers and (iv) low frequency 1/f noise. The generation of quantum states with sub-Poissonian statistics by semiconductor lasers will be examined. The role of deterministic chaos and quantum noise in reflection instabilities will be studied with very fast transient digitizers. We expect to develop design strategies for constructing stable lasers. Monte Carlo simulations will be used to test hypotheses on the origins of laser instabilities in conjunction with the experiments. The lasers thus developed could be used for information processing, pumping solid state lasers and for precision measurements.