Compensation of spatial inhomogeneities in a cavity soliton laser using a spatial light modulator

Dissipative solitons are self-localized states which can exist anywhere in a system with translational symmetry, but in real systems this translational symmetry is usually broken due to parasitic inhomogeneities leading to spatial disorder, pinning the soliton positions. We discuss the effects of semiconductor growth induced spatial disorder on the operation of a cavity soliton laser based on a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). We show that a refractive index variation induced by an external, suitably spatially modulated laser beam can be used to counteract the inherent disorder. In particular, it is demonstrated experimentally that the threshold of one cavity soliton can be lowered without influencing other cavity solitons making two solitons simultaneously bistable which were not without control. This proof of principle paves the way to achieve full control of large numbers of cavity solitons at the same time.