Optical bistability and nearly degenerate four-wave mixing in a GaAlAs laser under intermodal injection

We demonstrate in a GaAlAs laser under intermodal optical injection, the existence of a domain, outside the injection-locking range, where the sidemode becomes the dominant lasing mode and gives rise to nearly degenerate four-wave-mixing processes. It is shown experimentally and by computer simulation that this domain is asymmetric with respect to the frequency detuning, and bistability of its borderline occurs, with a characteristic dependence on the injected light power.