Nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers
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Semiconductor lasers (or laser diodes) are
important practical devices, widely used in optical communications, optical
signal processing, and life science applications (imaging, sensors, etc.). While
“solitary” diode lasers emit a stable output, under external perturbations
these lasers display a wide range of nonlinear behaviors that can be
exploited for applications. The research in our lab is focused in the
influence of optical feedback and/or optical injection. We study the regime
of low-frequency fluctuations, in which the laser intensity exhibits abrupt
and apparently random dropouts that resemble neuronal spikes. We refer to
these dropouts as optical spikes. We are interested in exploring the
similarity of optical spikes and the spikes of biological neurons.
Establishing a connection between these different dynamical systems can offer
new perspectives in both, photonics and neuroscience. Laser-based photonic
neurons can provide a novel, inexpensive and controllable experimental set up
for improving our understanding of neuronal activity. On the other hand,
laser-based photonic neurons can be the building blocks of neuro-inspired,
ultra-fast optical computing devices. We are also interested in extreme optical
pulses (known as optical rogue waves) induced by optical feedback or
injection. Our work is aimed at understanding the mechanisms that trigger
them and finding ways to control and predict them. Another research topic is focused on tailoring
the amount of speckle generated by diode laser illumination and exploiting
speckle patterns for sensing. Recent publications: Machine
learning algorithms for predicting the amplitude of chaotic laser pulses P. Amil, M. C. Soriano, and C. Masoller Chaos 29, 113111 (2019). Arxiv: 1911.04815. Experimental
characterization of the speckle pattern at the output of a multimode optical fiber D. Halpaap, J. Tiana-Alsina, M. Vilaseca, C. Masoller Optics Express 27, 27738 (2019). Comparing
the dynamics of periodically forced lasers and neurons J. Tiana-Alsina, C. Quintero-Quiroz, C. Masoller
New J. of Phys 21,
103039 (2019). Funding: ITN BEOPTICAL
(H2020-675512) ICREA ACADEMIA Ministerio de
Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, PGC2018-099443-B-I00
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Experimental intensity of a semiconductor laser operating in the
low-frequency fluctuations regime induced by external optical feedback. Awards: C.
Masoller was elected in OSA Fellow 2016 “For
contributions in the area of nonlinear dynamics of optical systems”.
C. Masoller with A. Wilner (OSA 2016 President), Rochester,
US |
