Abstract

Semiconductor laser diodes with external optical feedback (EOFSL) have found considerable interest within the last 10 years /1–6/. This is due to the practical importance of this system as well as the EOFSL can serve as a model system for the investigation of the dynamics of nonlinear systems with countable infinite dimensions. EOFSL exhibit drastic changes in the output behavior for specific values of the operation parameters, especially a coherence collapse of the laser output can be found /1/. Experiments and numerical simulations have explained these changes by a quasiperiodic route to chaos for the variation of the feedback level /2/ as well as by an intermittency route /3/ for the variation of the injection current.

© 1992 Optical Society of America