Application of semiconductor lasers to agile optical phased arrays

Abstract

Summary form only given. We examine an array of coupled modelocked semiconductor lasers combining close packing density with very specifically controlled linear and nonlinear behavior. The application provides an optical analog of agile phased array microwave radar. A particular concern is pulse forming and true time delay for any array of short optical pulses. In essence this requires phase-locking the entire set of modes of an array of physically distinct microlaser oscillators into a quasi-stable state and then rapidly reconfiguring that phase-locking along a well controlled trajectory to a different, and also quasi-stable, state.