Spatial mode dynamics in wide-aperture quantum-dot lasers

We present a systematic theoretical study of spatial mode dynamics in wide-aperture semiconductor quantum-dot lasers within the Maxwell-Bloch formalism. Our opto-electro-thermal model self-consistently captures the essential dynamical coupling between field, polarization, and carrier density in both thermal and nonthermal regimes, providing detailed description of the complex spatiotemporal modal intensity structure and spectra in these novel devices and broad area edge-emitting lasers in general. Using linear stability analysis and high resolution adaptive-grid finite element numerical simulation, we show that in the nonthermal regime, the presence of inhomogeneous broadening in quantum-dot active media leads to suppressed filamentation and enhanced spatial coherence compared to conventional quantum well devices with comparable phase-amplitude coupling (alpha parameter). Increasing the degree of inhomogeneous broadening in the active medium leads to further improvement in spatial coherence. In the thermal regime, there is further suppression of filamentation in the inhomogeneously broadened quantum-dot active medium; however, the spatial coherence aided by inhomogeneous broadening is partly lost due to the effect of temperature on cavity detuning. We propose that device designs based on optimized inhomogeneous broadening of quantum-dot gain medium could ultimately lead to diffraction-limited outputs in the quasi-cw regime which are still very difficult to achieve in conventional wide-aperture designs.

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