Laterally coupled periodic semiconductor laser structures: Bloch function analysis

The Bloch function analysis is applied to the problem of periodical phase-locked semiconductor laser array structures. This method makes it possible to treat in the same manner both evanescent and leaky modes of such structures and to optimize these structures in order to get maximum content in the central lobe of emission far-field pattern. If one places high gain in the low-index array regions, the preferred array modes are leaky modes coupled either in-phase or out-of-phase depending on parameters of structure. The linear and nonlinear problems of the propagation of finite aperture beams in such laser structures are considered. Propagation of such a beam is described by the Schrodinger equation with `photon mass´ determined by a curvature of photon dispersion