Various Phenomena of Self-mode-locked Operation in Optically Pumped Semiconductor Lasers

Abstract

This work presents several optical experiments to investigate the phenomenon of self-mode locking (SML) in optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSLs). First of all, we systematically explore the influence of high-order transverse modes on the SML in an OPSL with a linear cavity. Experimental results reveal that the occurrence of SML can be assisted by the existence of the first high-order transverse mode, and the laser is operated in a well-behaved SML state with the existence of the TEM0,0 mode and the first high-order transverse mode. While more high-order transverse modes are excited, it is found that the pulse train is modulated by more beating frequencies of transverse modes. The temporal behavior becomes the random dynamics when too many high-order transverse modes are excited. We observe that the temporal trace exhibits an intermittent mode-locked state in the absence of high-order transverse modes. In addition to typical mode-locked pulses, we originally observe an intriguing phenomenon of SML in an OPSL related to the formation of bright-dark pulse pairs. We experimentally demonstrated that under the influence of the tiny reflection feedback, the phase locking between lasing longitudinal modes can be assisted to form bright-dark pulse pairs in the scale of round-trip time. A theoretical model based on the multiple reflections in a phase-locked multi-longitudinal-mode laser is developed to confirm the formation of bright-dark pulse pairs.