Abstract

Self-sustained pulsation phenomena were first observed in degraded lasers. Narrow stripe lasers also show this self-pulsating behavior. Although rate-equation models predicting the self-pulsations exist, a more physical explanation of the self-pulsations is still lacking. Since self-sustained pulsations can also be obtained in structures with an unpumped region in the longitudinal direction of the laser, which then acts as a saturable absorber, the connection with saturable absorber mode-locking is tempting.

© 1998 IEEE