Optical stabilization of an external cavity semiconductor laser by creation and destruction of external cavity modes

We present an experimental realization of an all-optical stabilization technique for a single-mode external-cavity semiconductor laser operating in the low-frequency fluctuation (LFF) regime. This technique uses a second delayed optical feedback to suppress LFF via two mechanisms: destroying the antimodes responsible for the crises that induce power dropouts, and creating new stable maximum gain modes. Both effects are observed experimentally, in agreement with numerical simulations.