Heteroclinic dynamics of coupled semiconductor lasers with optoelectronic feedback.

Generalized Lotka-Volterra (GLV) equations are important equations used in various areas of science to describe competitive dynamics among a population of N interacting nodes in a network topology. In this Letter, we introduce a photonic network consisting of three optoelectronically cross-coupled semiconductor lasers to realize a GLV model. In such a network, the interaction of intensity and carrier inversion rates, as well as phases of laser oscillator nodes, result in various dynamics. We study the influence of asymmetric coupling strength and frequency detuning between semiconductor lasers and show that inhibitory asymmetric coupling is required to achieve consecutive amplitude oscillations of the laser nodes. These studies were motivated primarily by the dynamical models used to model brain cognitive activities and their correspondence with dynamics obtained among coupled laser oscillators.

Loss-induced suppression and revival of lasing.

Controlling and reversing the effects of loss are major challenges in optical systems. For lasers, losses need to be overcome by a sufficient amount of gain to reach the lasing threshold. In this work, we show how to turn losses into gain by steering the parameters of a system to the vicinity of an exceptional point (EP), which occurs when the eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenstates of a system coalesce. In our system of coupled microresonators, EPs are manifested as the loss-induced suppression and revival of lasing. Below a critical value, adding loss annihilates an existing Raman laser. Beyond this critical threshold, lasing recovers despite the increasing loss, in stark contrast to what would be expected from conventional laser theory. Our results exemplify the counterintuitive features of EPs and present an innovative method for reversing the effect of loss.

Three output port channel-drop filter based on photonic crystals.

We present a photonic-crystal (PC) channel-drop filter (CDF) design based on 3x3 PC ring resonators. The normalized transmission spectra for single-ring and dual-ring configurations have been investigated using two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique in a square-lattice dielectric-rod PC structure. First, we investigate a single ring and we show that backward and forward dropping is possible in the third communication window. Then we add another ring and waveguide to develop a new CDF. This filter consists of an input and three outputs. Our FDTD simulation yields more than 85% efficiency over each output port.