Events

Nonlinear Dynamics of Semiconductor Laser Arrays

Dr. Herbert G. Winful, Joseph E. and Anne P. Rowe Professor of Electrical Engineering, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, and Professor of Physics, University of Michigan

Presented in person in Goergen 101 and on Zoom

Join Zoom

Abstract

Semiconductor laser arrays provide a remarkably rich setting in which to study the collective dynamics of coupled nonlinear oscillators. This talk traces the development of their theory from early work on phase locking and stability to recent studies of synchronized chaos, multistability, and control. The amplitude–phase coupling inherent in semiconductor lasers makes even simple arrays susceptible to oscillatory instabilities, quasiperiodicity, and chaos. As the number of lasers increases, the coupling required for instability decreases, allowing complex collective behavior to emerge at progressively weaker coupling strengths. We examine experimental results on laser array dynamics and show how the coupled oscillator theory explains the observed dynamics. Finally, we discuss recent work with Max Chumley showing how multistable collective states in delay-coupled lasers can be selected through controlled optical injection. Together, these results reveal a progression from instability to structured dynamics, synchronization, multistability, and ultimately the deliberate control of collective laser behavior.

Biography

Herbert Winful is the Joseph E. and Anne P. Rowe Professor of Electrical Engineering, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, and Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan. He earned his BS in electrical engineering from MIT in 1975 and his PhD from the University of Southern California in 1981. From 1980 to 1986 he was a Principal Member of Technical Staff at GTE Laboratories in Waltham, MA before joining the EECS faculty at the University of Michigan in 1987.

He has made fundamental contributions to nonlinear fiber optics, nonlinear optics in periodic structures, the nonlinear dynamics of laser arrays, the propagation of single-cycle pulses, and the physics of quantum tunneling.

He is a Fellow of Optica (the Optical Society of America), the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Society of Black Physicists. His many awards include the 2020 IEEE Photonics Society Quantum Electronics Award, the State of Michigan Teaching Award, the Amoco/University Teaching Award, the College of Engineering Teaching Excellence and Service Excellence Awards, the EECS Professor of the Year Award (twice), and the Tau Beta Pi Distinguished Professor award.