Soliton dynamics of ring quantum cascade lasers with injected signal

Nanophotonics

article

Franco Prati¹  Luigi A. Lugiato¹  Federico Capasso²  Massimo Brambilla³  Marco Piccardo⁴  Lorenzo Luigi Columbo⁵  Carlo Silvestri⁵  Mariangela Gioannini⁵  Alessandra Gatti¹ 

[1] Dipartimento di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia, Università dell’Insubria;Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University;Dipartimento di Fisica Interateneo and CNR-IFN, Università e Politecnico di Bari;Center for Nano Science and Technology, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia;Dipartimento di Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni;Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie

关键词: frequency combs;    quantum cascade lasers;    solitons;   

DOI  :  10.1515/nanoph-2020-0409

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: De Gruyter

【 摘 要 】

Nonlinear interactions in many physical systems lead to symmetry breaking phenomena in which an initial spatially homogeneous stationary solution becomes modulated. Modulation instabilities have been widely studied since the 1960s in different branches of nonlinear physics. In optics, they may result in the formation of optical solitons, localized structures that maintain their shape as they propagate, which have been investigated in systems ranging from optical fibres to passive microresonators. Recently, a generalized version of the Lugiato–Lefever equation predicted their existence in ring quantum cascade lasers with an external driving field, a configuration that enables the bistability mechanism at the basis of the formation of optical solitons. Here, we consider this driven emitter and extensively study the structures emerging therein. The most promising regimes for localized structure formation are assessed by means of a linear stability analysis of the homogeneous stationary solution (or continuous-wave solution). In particular, we show the existence of phase solitons – chiral structures excited by phase jumps in the cavity – and cavity solitons. The latter can be deterministically excited by means of writing pulses and manipulated by the application of intensity gradients, making them promising as frequency combs (in the spectral domain) or reconfigurable bit sequences that can encode information inside the ring cavity.

【 授权许可】

CC BY