ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a hierarchy of Traveling wave (TW) models describing nonlinear dynamics in individual semiconductor lasers, various Multisection semiconductor lasers, and coupled laser systems. It describes that the 1+1-dimensional TW model is a compromise between simplicity and precision. Comparing to ODE and delay differential equation models, the TW model is computationally more demanding but still enables an advanced analysis, which is hardly possible in the case of the multidimensional PDE models. The chapter discusses a possibility to join several laser sections into a single multisection laser or a coupled laser device. For an illustration of the available device complexity, the chapter presents simulations of a ring laser with four branches of filtered feedback. It explains the concept of the instantaneous optical modes; discusses the mode analysis, the location and semi analytic continuation of the stationary states, the model reduction, and the numerical bifurcation analysis.
