Ultrafast pulse amplification in mode-locked vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers
- College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona, 1630 E. University Blvd., Tucson, Arizona 85721 (United States)
A fully microscopic many-body Maxwell–semiconductor Bloch model is used to investigate the influence of the non-equilibrium carrier dynamics on the short-pulse amplification in mode-locked semiconductor microlaser systems. The numerical solution of the coupled equations allows for a self-consistent investigation of the light–matter coupling dynamics, the carrier kinetics in the saturable absorber and the multiple-quantum-well gain medium, as well as the modification of the light field through the pulse-induced optical polarization. The influence of the pulse-induced non-equilibrium modifications of the carrier distributions in the gain medium and the saturable absorber on the single-pulse amplification in the laser cavity is identified. It is shown that for the same structure, quantum wells, and gain bandwidth the non-equilibrium carrier dynamics lead to two preferred operation regimes: one with pulses in the (sub-)100 fs-regime and one with multi-picosecond pulses. The recovery time of the saturable absorber determines in which regime the device operates.
- OSTI ID:
- 22395600
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 26; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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