Numerical Study of Dynamical Regimes in a Monolithic Passively Mode-Locked Semiconductor Laser

Bifurcation mechanisms of the development and break up of different operation regimes in a passively mode-locked monolithic semiconductor laser are studied by solving numerically partial differential equations for amplitudes of two counterpropagating waves and carrier densities in gain and absorber sections. It is shown that mode-locking regimes with different repetition rates can be multistable for a wide range of laser parameters and that the harmonic mode-locking regime with two counterpropagating pulses in the cavity can exhibit a period-doubling bifurcation leading to different amplitudes and separations of the pulses. The effect of linewidth enhancement factors in gain and absorber sections on the laser dynamics is discussed.