title: Dynamics of activated escape and its observation in a semiconductor laser
abstract: We report a direct experimental observation and provide a theory of the distribution of trajectories along which a fluctuating system moves over a potential barrier in escape from a metastable state. The experimental results are obtained for a semiconductor laser with optical feedback. The distribution of paths displays a distinct peak, which shows how the escaping system is most likely to move. We argue that the specific features of this distribution may give an insight into the nature of dropout events in lasers.
authors.affiliation: CREOL, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA.
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hales
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhukov
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Dykman