Cavity solitons in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Vladimirov A.G., Pimenov A., Gurevich S.V., Panajotov K., Averlant E., Tlidi M.

Zusammenfassung

A. G. Vladimirov1,2⇑, A. Pimenov1, S. V. Gurevich3, K. Panajotov4,5, E. Averlant4,6 and M. Tlidi61Weierstrass Institute, Mohrenstrasse 39, 10117 Berlin, Germany2Saint Petersburg State University, Faculty of Physics, St Petersburg, Russia3Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Strasse 9, 48149 Münster, Germany4Department of Applied Physics and Photonics (IR-TONA), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium5Institute of Solid State Physics, 72 Tzarigradsko Chaussee Boulevard, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria6Université Libre de Bruxelles (U.L.B.), Faculté des Sciences, CP. 231, Campus Plaine, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgiume-mail: vladimir{at}wias-berlin.deAbstract We investigate a control of the motion of localized structures (LSs) of light by means of delay feedback in the transverse section of a broad area nonlinear optical system. The delayed feedback is found to induce a spontaneous motion of a solitary LS that is stationary and stable in the absence of feedback. We focus our analysis on an experimentally relevant system, namely the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). We first present an experimental demonstration of the appearance of LSs in a 80 μm aperture VCSEL. Then, we theoretically investigate the self-mobility properties of the LSs in the presence of a time-delayed optical feedback and analyse the effect of the feedback phase and the carrier lifetime on the delay-induced spontaneous drift instability of these structures. We show that these two parameters affect strongly the space{\textendash}time dynamics of two-dimensional LSs. We derive an analytical formula for the threshold associated with drift instability of LSs and a normal form equation describing the slow time evolution of the speed of the moving structure. semiconductor laserscavity solitonsdelayed feedbackbifurcationsdrift instabilityFootnotesOne contribution of 19 to a Theme Issue {\textquoteleft}Localized structures in dissipative media: from optics to plant ecology{\textquoteright}.{\textcopyright} 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.