Experimental characterization of DFB and FP chaotic lasers with strong incoherent optical feedback

We have experimentally investigated chaotic power oscillations in single-longitudinal mode DFB and multi-longitudinal mode FP lasers as a function of incoherent optical feedback strengths of up to 42%. We have demonstrated the existence of chaos in the output oscillations of both laser types using classical experimental tools such as RF spectrum, standard deviation, and maximum Lyapunov exponent, which all increase with increasing of feedback strength for both in single-longitudinal mode DFB lasers and multi-longitudinal mode FP lasers. It is also shown that power switching among longitudinal modes of multimode FP semiconductor laser is a considerable portion of the chaotic power oscillations for both strong and weak incoherent optical feedback.