Unstable manifolds of external cavity modes in the short cavity regime

This work shows how the computation of 1D unstable manifolds of saddle external cavity modes (ECMs) can be used to provide insight into global features and bifurcations in the transition to pulse packages (PPs) in a semiconductor laser with optical feedback. This study of 1D unstable manifolds of saddle ECMs agrees well with experimental measurements reported previously and allows the identification of global bifurcations in the transition to PPs. Computing these manifolds is a new tool for the study of systems of delay differential equations (DDEs) in general, and lasers with delays in particular.