Theory and experiments of single-mode ridge waveguide GaAs-AlGaAs semiconductor ring lasers are presented. The lasers are found to operate bidirectionally up to twice the threshold, where unidirectional operation starts. Bidirectional operation reveals that just above threshold, the lasers operate in a regime where the two counterpropagating modes are continuous wave. As the injected current is increased, a new regime appears where the intensities of the two counterpropagating modes undergo alternate sinusoidal oscillations with frequency in the tens of megahertz range. The regime with alternate oscillations was previously observed in ring lasers of the gas and dye type, and it is here reported and investigated in semiconductor ring lasers. A theoretical model based on a mean field approach for the two counterpropagating modes is proposed to study the semiconductor ring laser dynamics. Numerical results are in agreement with the regime sequence experimentally observed when the injected current is increased (i.e., bidirectional continuous-wave, bidirectional with alternate oscillations, unidirectional). The boundaries of the different regimes are studied as a function of the relevant parameters, which turn out to be the pump current and the conservative and dissipative scattering coefficients, responsible for an explicit linear coupling between the two counterpropagating field modes. By a fitting procedure, we obtain good numerical agreement between experiment and theory, and also an estimation for the otherwise unknown scattering parameters.

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Operating regimes of GaAs-AlGaAs semiconductor ring lasers: experiment and model

Advances in processing technology, such as quantum-well structures and dry-etching techniques, have made it possible to create new types of two-dimensional (2D) microcavity lasers which have 2D emission patterns of output laser light although conventional one-dimensional (1D) edge-emitting-type lasers have 1D emission. Two-dimensional microcavity lasers have given nice experimental stages for fundamental researches on wave chaos closely related to quantum chaos. New types of 2D microcavity lasers also can offer the important lasing characteristics of directionality and high-power output light, and they may well find applications in optical communications, integrated optical circuits, and optical sensors. Fundamental physics of 2D microcavity lasers has been reviewed from the viewpoint of classical and quantum chaos, and recently developed theoretical approaches have been introduced. In addition, nonlinear dynamics due to the interaction among wave-chaotic modes through the active lasing medium is explained. Applications of 2D microcavity lasers for directional emission with strong light confinement are introduced, as well as high-precision rotation sensors designed by using wave-chaotic properties.

Two‐dimensional microcavity lasers

Where am I? : sensors and methods for autonomous mobile robot positioning

Spectroscopic techniques based on Lamb's laser theory

Spatial hole burning of population differences by standing waves is considered in terms of Bragg-like gratings. This philosophy is used to explain increased saturation in two-mirror, single-mode laser operation with stationary active systems, modified mode coupling in the corresponding two-mode operation, an intensity dip that might occur in flowed standing wave lasers, bistable unidirectional ring laser operation, and increased saturation in distributed feedback lasers. The analysis is developed for both stationary media and for those moving with respect to the standing wave. The latter treatment is used to interpret washout of grating contributions in Doppler broadened media, and to determine level decay constants in stationary media. This last application constitutes a stationary system analog to the Doppler medium's Lamb dip spectroscopy and can be called saturation grating spectroscopy. Knowledge of the decay constants is particularly important in laser studies involving coherent mode couplings such as due to saturation grating scattering and population pulsations. It is further shown that the same equations result for probe and saturating waves propagating in the same direction. One then obtains a signal absorption with a heterodyne advantage. Inasmuch as diffusion affects the two methods quite differently, this phenomenon should be easily examined.

Laser saturation grating phenomena

Development of a systematic formulation of the theory of a ring laser which is based on first principles and uses a well-known model for laser operation. A simple physical derivation of the electromagnetic field equations for a noninertial reference frame in uniform rotation is presented, and an attempt is made to clarify the nature of the Fox-Li modes for an open polygonal resonator. The polarization of the active medium is obtained by using a Fourier-series method which permits the formulation of a strong-signal theory, and solutions are given in terms of continued fractions. It is shown that when such a continued fraction is expanded to third order in the fields, the familiar small-signal ring-laser theory is obtained.

Leonel N. Menegozzi

Papers

Theory of a ring laser