Control of multistability in a directly modulated diode laser

A semiconductor laser with modulated injection current has the property that many competing behaviors are possible and the system tends to alternate among them. Such a situation is not desirable if a stable output is required. We show with numerical simulations that additional slow harmonic modulation can annihilate undesirable coexisting attractors in this laser. We demonstrate great flexibility of the method in manipulating the laser's dynamics to select a desired behavior and even to make the system monos table.