A comparison of amplitude-phase coupling and linewidth enhancement in semiconductor quantum-well and bulk lasers

Author

Zhao, B. ; Chen, T.R. ; Yariv, A.

Author_Institution

Thomas J. Watson Sr. Lab. of Appl. Phys., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

29

Issue

4

fYear

1993

fDate

4/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1027

Lastpage

1030

Abstract

The amplitude-phase coupling factor α (linewidth enhancement factor) is compared for typical semiconductor quantum-well and bulk double heterostructure lasers. As a direct consequence of the reduction of the differential gain, there is no reduction of α in single-quantum-well lasers compared to bulk lasers. The number of quantum wells strongly affects the amplitude-phase coupling in quantum-well lasers. It is shown that the interband transition induced amplitude-phase coupling dominates that induced by the plasma effect of carriers in typical quantum-well lasers. By considering the spontaneous emission factor in the spectral linewidth, the authors show that there is an optimal number of quantum wells for achieving the narrowest spectral linewidth

Keywords

semiconductor lasers; spectral line breadth; amplitude-phase coupling factor; bulk double heterostructure lasers; carriers; differential gain; interband transition induced amplitude-phase coupling; linewidth enhancement factor; plasma effect; single-quantum-well lasers; spectral linewidth; spontaneous emission factor; Chirp; Laser noise; Laser transitions; Optical coupling; Optical distortion; Power lasers; Quantum well lasers; Quantum wells; Semiconductor lasers; Spontaneous emission;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.214485

Filename

214485