Electric-field-assisted gain control in a high-power picosecond laser diode

Sergey N. Vainshtein; Valentin Yuferev; Juha Tapio Kostamovaara

doi:10.1117/12.468467

11 March 2003 Electric-field-assisted gain control in a high-power picosecond laser diode

Sergey N. Vainshtein, Valentin Yuferev, Juha Tapio Kostamovaara

Proceedings Volume 4947, Laser Diodes, Optoelectronic Devices, and Heterogenous Integration; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.468467
Event: Photonics Fabrication Europe, 2002, Bruges, Belgium

Abstract

A laser diode structure has lately been reported that is capable of generating high-power picosecond optical pulses (~ 50 W / 20 ps) in the near-infrared range for laser radars and other applications. The physical idea consists of achieving fast gain control through the effect of a transverse electric field on the carrier distribution across the active region, which controls the local gain and local absorption at each instant. The mechanism of field-assisted gain control, which has so far been formulated only as a qualitative idea, is justified in this work by simulations of the carrier transport and laser response using the semiconductor device simulator "Atlas" (Silvaco Inc.). A simplified approach is adopted which replaces photon-assisted carrier transport with carrier penetration over the lowered potential barrier. This points to reasonably good agreement between the experimental and simulation results for picosecond pulse generation, provided that the carrier mobilities are assumed to be higher than those in the heavily doped semiconductor structure by a factor of ~ 4. One important conclusion is that comprehensive modelling of the operation of the experimental laser diode is not possible without considering photon-assisted carrier transport, which has not been studied so far at very high carrier densities (exceeding the transparency concentration).

Citation Download Citation

Sergey N. Vainshtein, Valentin Yuferev, and Juha Tapio Kostamovaara "Electric-field-assisted gain control in a high-power picosecond laser diode", Proc. SPIE 4947, Laser Diodes, Optoelectronic Devices, and Heterogenous Integration, (11 March 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.468467

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