Line broadening up to 25 GHz in a single-mode semiconductor laser with relatively strong optical feedback is reported and theoretically analyzed. Measurements of the coherence function were performed using a Michelson interferometer and demonstrate that the coherence length decreases by a factor 1000 (to approximately 10 mm) due to optical feedback. A self-consistent theoretical description is given, which is based on the view that coherence collapse is maintained due to optical-feedback-delay effects, in which quantum fluctuations play no role of importance. A connection with recently suggested chaotic behavior is made. The theoretical results obtained are in good qualitative and reasonable quantitative agreement with measurements.

We present an experimental and theoretical study of the optical transmission of a thin metal screen perforated by two subwavelength slits, separated by many optical wavelengths. The total intensity of the far-field double-slit pattern is shown to be reduced or enhanced as a function of the wavelength of the incident light beam. This modulation is attributed to an interference phenomenon at each of the slits, instead of at the detector. The interference arises as a consequence of the excitation of surface plasmons propagating from one slit to the other.

Theory and experiments on optical feedback effects in index-guided single-mode semiconductor lasers are presented. Evidence is found for the existence of a characteristic parameterCwhich indicates the relative strength of the optical feedback. Near the transition (C \approx 1.0) from low to high feedback, the feedback-induced low-frequency intensity noise shows a maximum. At higher feedback hysteresis and instabilities are dominant, whereas the feedback-induced noise is low again.

We present a model for polarization-dependent gain saturation in strained bulk semiconductor optical amplifiers. We assume that the polarized optical field can be decomposed into transverse electric and transverse magnetic components that have indirect interaction with each other via the gain saturation. The gain anisotropy due to tensile strain in the amplifier is accounted for by a population imbalance factor. The model is applied to a nonlinear polarization switch, for which results are obtained, that are in excellent agreement with experimental data. Finally, we describe an all-optical flip-flop memory that is based on two coupled nonlinear polarization switches.

An optically injected semiconductor laser can produce excitable multipulses. Homoclinic bifurcation curves confine experimentally accessible regions in parameter space where the laser emits a certain number of pulses after being triggered from its steady state by a single perturbation. This phenomenon is organized by a generic codimension-two homoclinic bifurcation and should also be observable in other systems.