Title :
Effects of spatial hole burning on gain switching in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers
Author :
Law, Joanne Y. ; Agrawal, Govind P.
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Opt., Rochester Univ., NY, USA
fDate :
3/1/1997 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
We present a numerical study of the effects of carrier diffusion and spatial hole-burning in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers under gain switching. Our model includes spatial and temporal dependences of both the optical field and the carrier density. Results show that spatial hole burning places a limit on the minimum achievable pulse width. We demonstrate that spatial hole-burning tan be avoided and shorter pulses can be obtained by using an appropriate pumping geometry. We also consider the case in which the laser operates simultaneously in two transverse modes and show that transverse-mode competition induced by spatial hole burning leads to period doubling and other interesting nonlinear behavior
Keywords :
carrier density; high-speed optical techniques; laser cavity resonators; laser modes; laser theory; optical hole burning; optical pumping; semiconductor device models; surface emitting lasers; carrier density; carrier diffusion; gain switching; minimum achievable pulse width; nonlinear behavior; numerical study; optical field; period doubling; pumping geometry; shorter pulses; spatial dependence; spatial hole burning; temporal dependence; transverse modes; transverse-mode competition; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers; Charge carrier density; Geometrical optics; Laser modes; Nonlinear optics; Optical pulses; Optical pumping; Pump lasers; Space vector pulse width modulation; Surface emitting lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;
Journal_Title :
Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of
