Longitudinal spatial instability in symmetric semiconductor lasers due to spatial hole burning

A novel type of longitudinal instability due to spatial hole burning in symmetric semiconductor laser structures (DFB lasers in particular) is examined analytically and numerically. It is shown that, at a certain output power, the gain and refractive index spatial distributions of the lasing mode become unstable. Above this output power, the modal gains and oscillation frequencies change drastically, which often causes multimode operation. A measure of the cavity stability is introduced and derived analytically for a Fabry-Perot and a single phase-shifted DFB laser. Results from numerical simulations of a multiple phase-shifted DFB laser are presented