Optical bistability in short-external-cavity DBR semiconductor lasers

Abstract

The bistability that we are describing results from designing properly the cavity of a Distributed Bragg Reflector laser realized with an external fiber grating and is based on longitudinal mode competition. The analysis of the output power bistability is done with a simulation of the static behavior of the laser. An accurate and fast computing algorithm has been implemented to solve the steady state rate equations for photon and carrier density. The used model is based on multimode analysis and includes gain saturation.