Diagnostics of asymmetrically coated semiconductor lasers

The authors present a simple diagnostic procedure for lasers that have a priori unknown facet reflectivities. The most important laser parameters that can be extracted are the cavity decay rate Gamma /sub c/ (equal to the inverse of the photon lifetime), the mirror loss coefficient alpha /sub m/ identical to -1/2 L In R/sub 1/R/sub 2/, the internal loss coefficient alpha /sub i/, the facet reflection coefficients R/sub 1/ and R/sub 2/, the spontaneous emission factor n/sub sp/, and the differential gain xi /sub l/. The authors have verified the procedure by applying it to lasers with a priori known facet reflection coefficients, these lasers were weakly index guided (VSIS and CSP types).<>