Spatio-temporal characteristics of filamentation in broad-area semiconductor lasers: experimental results

We experimentally study the spatial and temporal characteristics of filamentation in broad-area semiconductor lasers. Near-field measurements show that the sparing between filaments decreases as either the pumping level or the linewidth enhancement factor is increased. Spectral measurements reveal that spatial filaments are accompanied by periodic or chaotic temporal variations. Our experimental results show excellent qualitative agreement with a theory based on a linear stability analysis of the rate equations for an infinitely wide stripe laser.