Passive mode-locking in quantum well Fabry-Pérot lasers

We develop a detailed theoretical description of passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers based on saturable absorber and compare it with experimental results. Our approach is based on a coarse grained Traveling Wave Model approach and a recently developed analytical time-domain susceptibility of semiconductor quantum wells, Under the approximation of intraband quasi-equilibrium, our model accounts for the dispersion of gain, absorption and refractive index and self-phase modulation. This description is to our knowledge the first time domain model of semiconductor media that does not rely upon the integration of semiconductor Bloch equations.