Abstract
Monte Carlo markovian models of a dual-mode semiconductor laser with quantum well (QW) or quantum dot (QD) active regions are proposed. Accounting for carriers and photons as particles that may exchange energy in the course of time allows an ab initio description of laser dynamics such as the mode competition and intrinsic laser noise. We used these models to evaluate the stability of the dual-mode regime when laser characteristics are varied: mode gains and losses, non-radiative recombination rates, intraband relaxation time, capture time in QD, transfer of excitation between QD via the wetting layer... As a major result, a possible steady-state dual-mode regime is predicted for specially designed QD semiconductor lasers thereby acting as a CW microwave or terahertz-beating source whereas it does not occur for QW lasers.
Highlights
CW dual-mode semiconductor lasers are key components for low cost microwave or terahertz beating generation [1]
A possible steady-state dual-mode regime is predicted for specially designed quantum dot (QD) semiconductor lasers thereby acting as a CW microwave or terahertzbeating source whereas it does not occur for quantum well (QW) lasers
The dual-mode QW semiconductor laser model is derived from our initial Monte Carlo semiconductor laser simulator [18]
Summary
CW dual-mode semiconductor lasers are key components for low cost microwave or terahertz beating generation [1]. Besides the use of independent lasers that is set out of the focus of this paper, difference frequency generation was demonstrated using devices with independent gain regions [2, 3], coupled-cavity microlasers [4], or edge-emitting lasers [5] Such devices all require a precise control of injection currents in the different gain regions to achieve a balanced dual-mode operation. We have recently addressed analytically the question of dual-mode stability of semiconductor lasers [10] This has been proposed within the framework of rate-equation models. The physical origin is the short intraband relaxation time that strongly couples the carrier populations To overcome this limitation, we proposed a quantum-dot active region to solve the mode competition because the difference between homogenous broadening due to temperature and inhomogeneous broadening due to growth process dispersion helps decoupling the modes [11,12,13]. The laser description proposed here, which uses Poisson point processes for both carrier and photons, is new and was only introduced by us [18, 19]
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