Eur. Phys. J. D 32, 75-82 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2004-00141-0

Spatial decorrelation in broad-area edge-emitting semiconductor amplifiers

¹ Institut Non-linéaire de Nice, UMR 6618 CNRS, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, 06560 Valbonne, France
² INFM, Dipartimento di Scienze, Universitá dell'Insubria, Via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy
³ INFM, Dipartimento di Fisica Interateneo, Universitá e Politecnico di Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70126 Bari, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a massimo.giudici@inln.cnrs.fr

Received: 29 June 2004
Published online: 26 October 2004

Abstract

We analyze experimentally the spatio-temporal dynamics of the transverse structures appearing in broad area edge-emitting semiconductor amplifiers under CW optical injection. We demonstrate that, in certain conditions, the light reflected by the system exhibits a multipeaked structure whose dependence on the parameters suggests an interpretation in terms of cavity solitons. These structures can exhibit self-pulsations with periods of the order of few milliseconds, which we explain in terms of regenerative thermal oscillations. In a particular device, we generate two single-peak structures which are spatially uncorrelated, as required for cavity solitons. A microscopic model shows good agreement with the main body of the experimental results.