Instability in surface emitting lasers due to external optical feedback

Abstract

Instability in the output of dc-biased surface emitting lasers due to an external cavity effect was observed. The output power spectrum exhibited multiple peaks with spacing corresponding to exactly the round-trip delay in silica fibers with length ranging from 2 m to 2 km. The magnitude of the peaks was enhanced in the spectral region centered at the laser relaxation frequency. With increased feedback, the background of the output spectrum was found to increase, indicating the presence of optical chaos. Numerical simulation based on the rate equation analysis was found to agree with the experiment, indicating the surface emitting lasers are well described by the rate equation and are susceptible to feedback as the edge emitting lasers.