Low-frequency regular pulse and intermittent oscillation in a mid-infrared interband cascade laser with optoelectronic feedback

Abstract

In this work, we experimentally investigate the nonlinear dynamics of a mid-infrared interband cascade laser (ICL) subject to optoelectronic feedback (OEF) through inspecting the time series and power spectrum of the laser output. The results show that, within the range of feedback strength limited by the experiment condition, the ICL sequentially presents stable state, continuously periodical oscillation (CPO), low-frequency regular pulse (LF-RP) and intermittent oscillation state with the increase of feedback strength. For the LF-RP state, the peak-to-peak value and the oscillation period increase with the increase of feedback strength. For the intermittent oscillation state, the time series is composed of the laminar region and burst region appeared alternately, and the average value and standard deviation for the duration of burst region gradually decrease with the increase of feedback strength.