Dynamic behaviors of a broad-area diode laser with lateral-mode-selected external feedback

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of a BAL with lateral-mode selected external feedback experimentally by measuring the far-field profile, intensity noise spectrum and time series of the output beam. The mode-selection is achieved by adjusting a stripe mirror at the pseudo far-field plane. Different dynamic behaviors are observed when different lateral modes are selected. When the mirror is aligned correctly and high-order modes are selected, in most of the cases periodic dynamics of the output power corresponding to a single roundtrip external-cavity loop is observed, but the dynamic behavior disappears in some case; when the zero-order mode is selected, periodic dynamics corresponding to a double roundtrip external-cavity loop is observed. When the stripe mirror is not aligned perfectly, a dynamic behavior like pulse-package oscillations is observed: a periodic oscillated output with a frequency of the single roundtrip external-cavity loop modulated by periodic low-frequency fluctuation. This is the first observation of pulse-package oscillation in a diode laser with long-cavity feedback, to our knowledge.