Optimal control of the transient behavior of coupled solid-state lasers

We apply optimal control theory to substantially reduce transient times for transitions between in-phase and out-of-phase states in coupled solid-state lasers. The control is a time-varying optical field that is injected into the cavities of each laser. We have analytically derived the optimal control and numerically solved the optimality system. Numerical simulations indicate that transient times can be significantly reduced upon increasing the injection strength very briefly.