Self-pulsing, spectral bistability, and chaos in a semiconductor laser diode with optoelectronic feedback

Abstract

We observed experimentally self-pulsing, subharmonic generation, spectral bistability, and chaos in a stable semiconductor laser diode with delayed optoelectronic feedback. The laser diode emits 200 ps optical pulses with 1.1 GHz repetition rate in the self-pulsing region, and the bistable region is critically dependent on the closed loop gain of the system. Theoretical explanations of observed experimental results are also given.