Multistability of semiconductor lasers with integrated delayed optical feedback
André Loose
A new regime of operation, where optical delayed feedback enables a semiconductor laser to operate in one of several stable states, is revealed in experiment. Our device exibits tristability and may become interesting for ternary optical logic, optical switching and memory applications. The Lang-Kobayashi model of delayed optical feedback is used to derive general conditions for the multistability which are shown to be consistent with the experiments and device-realistic simulations.