Two-parameter study of square-wave switching dynamics in orthogonally delay-coupled semiconductor lasers

We perform a detailed numerical analysis of square-wave (SW) polarization switching in two semiconductor lasers with time-delayed, orthogonal mutual coupling. An in-depth mapping of the dynamics in the two-parameter plane coupling strength versus frequency detuning shows that stable SWs occur in narrow parameter regions that are localized close to the boundary of stability of the pure-mode solution. In this steady state, the two coupled lasers emit orthogonal polarizations. We also show that there are various types of SW forms and that stable switching does not need the inclusion of noise or nonlinear gain in the model. As these narrow regions of deterministic and stable SWs occur for quite different combinations of parameters, they could potentially explain the waveforms that have been observed experimentally. However, on the other hand, these regions are narrow enough to be in fact considered as experimentally unreachable. Therefore, our results indicate that further experimental statistical studies are needed in order to distinguish deterministic and stationary square waveforms from long transients because of noise.