Influence of the refractive index nonlinearity on the dynamics of emission from semiconductor lasers

A mechanism is suggested for undamped self-switching of the radiation emitted from semiconductor lasers. Undamped pulsations of the emission intensity are attributed to switching of the resonator Q factor as a result of nonlinearity of the refractive index. Modified rate equations describing regular pulsations are derived. It is shown that the theoretically predicted dependence of the self-switching on the pumping level is in agreement with the experimental results.