Dynamics of monolithic passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers

Monolithic colliding pulse mode-locking (CPM) in semiconductor lasers is compared with self colliding pulse mode-locking (SCPM) through a large signal dynamic computer model which incorporates most of the significant features of semiconductor lasers. These include gain saturation, spontaneous emission, the gain-frequency relation, and the line-width enhancement factor. This new model replicates many of the published experimental results and also gives additional insight into the internal operation of the device. In particular, gain saturation combined with the standing waves created by colliding pulses within the saturable absorber produce a transient gain grating. This is found to have significant effects in locking either the even or the odd modes together in CPM. A performance comparison between CPM and SCPM is completed and some key design parameters of both configurations are explored