Author:
Phelan P.,O’Gorman J.,McInerney J.,Heffernan D.
Abstract
We report observation of instabilities in long external cavities containing self-pulsing laser diodes. The frequency of the self-pulsations locks to successive harmonics of the external cavity as the drive current is increased, and the light-current curve displays kinks at the transition points. The laser is unstable when biased at currents corresponding to these kinks. Qualitatively similar behavior has been observed in other laser types and a variety of cavity geometries.