Influence of optical self-injection on statistical properties of laser-pulse interference

TL;DR

This paper investigates how optical self-injection impacts the statistical properties of laser pulses, demonstrating experimentally and theoretically that reflected pulses can induce phase locking and alter phase diffusion in semiconductor lasers.

Contribution

It provides the first combined experimental and theoretical analysis of optical self-injection effects on laser pulse interference, highlighting phase locking phenomena.

Findings

Reflected optical pulses influence phase diffusion in lasers.

Varying pulse arrival times induces phase locking.

Optical self-injection alters statistical properties of laser emission.

Abstract

Pulsed optical self-injection markedly affects the emission characteristics of semiconductor lasers. In this work, we analyze its influence on the statistical properties of laser-pulse interference. We experimentally demonstrate that varying the arrival time of reflected optical pulses back into the laser cavity influences the phase-diffusion and induces an effect that, by analogy with external optical injection, we call phase locking. A comprehensive theoretical analysis of this phenomenon is also presented.