A unifying view of bifurcations in a semiconductor laser subject to optical injection

We are concerned with the dynamics and bifurcations of a single-mode semiconductor laser with optical injection, modeled by three-dimensional rate equations. Key bifurcations, namely saddle-node, Hopf, period-doubling, saddle-node of limit cycle and torus bifurcations, are followed over a wide range of injection strengths and detunings for different fixed values of the linewidth enhancement factor α. In this way we present, to our best knowledge, the most far-reaching overview yet of the dynamics of injected semiconductor lasers. Our results compare very well with experimental studies and tie together information in the literature on different aspects of the behavior of optically injected lasers.