Abstract

In a semiconductor laser diode (LD) with an external optical feedback, the occurence of self—coupled effects is well known. One can use the effects for optical memory readout utilizing either the laser power output changes or the voltage changes resulting from the addition of optical feedback (1). The first effect requires for its measurement a photodetector, which may conveniently be placed at the rear of the LD (2). The second effect requires no additional detector for its measurement. This implies that an LD can simultaneously function as a light source and detector. The devices using these effects are named SCOOP. We show the fundamental characteristics of various type SCOOP in our previous work and report a scheme to improve the operational instabilities in the optical memory pickup.

© 1983 Optical Society of America