Effective Rabi frequency in semiconductor lasers and the origin of self-starting harmonic frequency combs

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Silvestri, Carlo, Prati, Franco, Brambilla, Massimo, Gioannini, Mariangela, Columbo, Lorenzo Luigi
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Silvestri, Carlo
Prati, Franco
Brambilla, Massimo
Gioannini, Mariangela
Columbo, Lorenzo Luigi
author_facet Silvestri, Carlo
Prati, Franco
Brambilla, Massimo
Gioannini, Mariangela
Columbo, Lorenzo Luigi
contents Optical frequency combs have become a key research topic in optics and photonics. A peculiar comb state is the harmonic frequency comb (HFC), where optical lines are spaced by integer multiples of the cavity's free-spectral range. The spontaneous formation of HFCs has recently been observed in semiconductor lasers with fast gain recovery, such as Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs), although the underlying physical mechanism remains unclear. In this work, we provide a physical interpretation for the formation of HFCs in QCLs, based on a resonance phenomenon between an effective Rabi frequency and a mode of the laser cavity. This is corroborated by the results of the numerical integration of the effective semiconductor Maxwell-Bloch equations used to describe the multimode laser dynamics, as well as by the linear stability analysis of the continuous wave emission at threshold.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_17527
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Effective Rabi frequency in semiconductor lasers and the origin of self-starting harmonic frequency combs
Silvestri, Carlo
Prati, Franco
Brambilla, Massimo
Gioannini, Mariangela
Columbo, Lorenzo Luigi
Optics
Optical frequency combs have become a key research topic in optics and photonics. A peculiar comb state is the harmonic frequency comb (HFC), where optical lines are spaced by integer multiples of the cavity's free-spectral range. The spontaneous formation of HFCs has recently been observed in semiconductor lasers with fast gain recovery, such as Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs), although the underlying physical mechanism remains unclear. In this work, we provide a physical interpretation for the formation of HFCs in QCLs, based on a resonance phenomenon between an effective Rabi frequency and a mode of the laser cavity. This is corroborated by the results of the numerical integration of the effective semiconductor Maxwell-Bloch equations used to describe the multimode laser dynamics, as well as by the linear stability analysis of the continuous wave emission at threshold.
title Effective Rabi frequency in semiconductor lasers and the origin of self-starting harmonic frequency combs
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.17527