Characteristics of mode-hopping noise and its suppression with the help of electric negative feedback in semiconductor lasers

Some detailed properties of mode-hopping noise in semiconductor injection lasers are reported, and the validity of electric negative feedback as a method of suppressing the noise is demonstrated. Mode-hopping noise was found to be an intrinsic property of the laser, independent of optical feedback (reinjection of the output light) reflected at the surface of an external device. The optical feedback works to shift the operating point of the laser from a stable condition having single-mode operation to an unstable condition revealing the modehopping phenomena. Characteristics of the mode-hopping noise support well the theoretical analysis in which the source of the noise is assumed to be fluctuations of the emission and the electron wave accompanied by spontaneous emission and in which the noise is amplified through mechanism of the mode competition phenomena. Mode-hopping noise was suppressed with the help of the electric negative feedback from the optical detector to the injection current source more effectively than by another reducing method of superposition of the high-frequency current. The suppressed noise level was lower than that at stable single-mode operation.