Suppressing spatio-temporal lasing instabilities with wave-chaotic microcavities

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel approach using wave-chaotic microcavities to suppress spatio-temporal instabilities in broad-area semiconductor lasers, leading to more stable high-power laser operation.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that wave-chaotic cavities can effectively disrupt filamentation and chaos, offering a robust method to control nonlinear instabilities in high-power lasers.

Findings

Suppression of filamentation in broad-area lasers.

Enhanced stability of lasing dynamics.

Potential for broad applicability to high-power laser systems.

Abstract

Spatio-temporal instabilities are widespread phenomena resulting from complexity and nonlinearity. In broad-area edge-emitting semiconductor lasers, the nonlinear interactions of multiple spatial modes with the active medium can result in filamentation and spatio-temporal chaos. These instabilities degrade the laser performance and are extremely challenging to control. We demonstrate a powerful approach to suppress spatio-temporal instabilities using wave-chaotic or disordered cavities. The interference of many propagating waves with random phases in such cavities disrupts the formation of self-organized structures like filaments, resulting in stable lasing dynamics. Our method provides a general and robust scheme to prevent the formation and growth of nonlinear instabilities for a large variety of high-power lasers.