Nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor laser arrays: a mean field model

An analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of single-emitter and multiemitter index-guided semiconductor laser arrays is presented. The results are based on a propagation model that involves a pair of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations. The model describes the space-time evolution of the mutually interacting lateral field and carrier density distributions. It includes the effect of carrier diffusion and the effect of carrier-induced antiguiding. Coupling between the emitters is provided by the overlapping evanescent fields of the emitters as well as by the exchange of carriers through carrier diffusion. We show that carrier diffusion plays a significant role in the stability and the nature of bifurcations. Also we show that carrier-induced antiguiding is the principal reason of instability for singleand two-emitter arrays. We illustrate a wide variety of instabilities that demonstrate the richness of the dynamics in these devices