Decomposition of two-dimensional microlaser patterns

Abstract

For an ordinary individually addressable microlaser array, a separate control line is used for each microlaser, which requires a large number of control lines for even a small array. An organization that reduces the width of the control stream and simplifies packaging is matrix addressing, in which microlasers are arranged at the crossings of horizontal and vertical control lines. We consider the problem of decomposing arbitrary two-dimensional microlaser patterns into matrix-addressable patterns that are applied time sequentially to realize the target pattern. We present a mathematical model for the decomposition process and present an algorithm for optimal decomposition. We also consider bake factor, in which no more than N microlasers in a neighborhood of M (where N < M) are enabled, which avoids thermal overload by limiting the density of enabled microlasers. We conclude with a case study and show that, for completely arbitrary two-dimensional patterns, the average number of time-sequential patterns is less than the number of rows in a square array.