Abstract

We present an experimental study of the statistics of the switching between two modes of an AlGaAs semiconductor laser. We collect statistics of the dwell times (the time that a mode remains on or off) of the two modes and form probability histograms. From these histograms we are able to calculate the mean, variance, and higherorder moments of the dwell times. In particular, we examine this switching as a function of the ratio of the mean intensities of the two modes, i.e., the mode suppression ratio (MSR). The depth and frequency of the mode hopping is greatly dependent on the laser operating temperature and the injection current. We also present results of computer simulations on the mode hopping phenomena, based on a model which we have previously applied to intensity noise and line shape calculations.¹ We show the effect of the injection current on the mean dwell times for different values of the mode suppression ratio. We also consider the effect of different reference levels (the level at which a particular mode is considered on or off) on the dwell time distributions.

© 1989 Optical Society of America