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Physical Review A

Microscopic theory of spatiotemporal multiwave mixing in broad-area semiconductor laser amplifiers

Edeltraud Gehrig, Ortwin G. Hess

Published Dec 1, 1999• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We investigate the interplay of multiwave-mixing processes with the microscopically coupled spatiotemporal light field and charge carrier dynamics in broad-area semiconductor laser amplifiers. Our theoretical description is based on extended spatially resolved Maxwell-Bloch equations including on the microscopic level spatiotemporal multiwave-mixing processes. Performing a third-order expansion in terms of the microscopic carrier distribution, we include in our description both the effects of population pulsations of the total carrier density at the beat frequency and the spatiospectral interactions of the light fields leading to gain nonlinearities as well as spatial and spectral hole burning. Our simulations show that in a broad-area semiconductor laser amplifier, spatiotemporal wave-mixing processes occur in both transverse and propagation directions of the multifrequency optical beams employed in a typical excite-probe configuration.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.60.5035

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We investigate the interplay of multiwave-mixing processes with the microscopically coupled spatiotemporal light field and charge carrier dynamics in broad-area semiconductor laser amplifiers. Our theoretical description is based on extended spatially resolved Maxwell-Bloch equations including on the microscopic level spatiotemporal multiwave-mixing processes. Performing a third-order expansion in terms of the microscopic carrier distribution, we include in our description both the effects of population pulsations of the total carrier density at the beat frequency and the spatiospectral interactions of the light fields leading to gain nonlinearities as well as spatial and spectral hole burning. Our simulations show that in a broad-area semiconductor laser amplifier, spatiotemporal wave-mixing processes occur in both transverse and propagation directions of the multifrequency optical beams employed in a typical excite-probe configuration.
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We present a new steady-state frequency-domain model of highly nondegenerate four-wave mixing in bulk semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA's). The model can handle a large number of interacting optical fields and situations in which the nonlinear interactions are complex. It accounts for the longitudinal dependence of the population inversion in the SOA and the spectral dependence of the gain. Carrier population pulsations, spectral-hole burning, and carrier heating, which dominate the nonlinear response over bandwidths into the terahertz range, are included. The model also includes output amplified spontaneous emission noise and allows important system parameters such as signal-to-noise ratio and noise figure to be estimated. A number of applications of the model are presented in which good agreement between theoretical and experimental results is demonstrated.
The theory of nondegenerate four-wave mixing (NDFWM) in semiconductor lasers and amplifiers is presented with particular emphasis on the physical processes that lead to population pulsations. In the case of nearly degenerate four-wave mixing, modulation of the carrier density at the beat frequency Ω of the pump and probe waves creates a dynamic population grating whose effectiveness is governed by the spontaneous carrier lifetime τs. Such a grating affects both the gain and the refractive index of the probe wave. In particular, the probe gain exhibits features analogous to those observed in a detuned atomic system arising from the optical Stark effect. Both the gain grating and the index grating contribute to NDFWM, with the dominant contribution coming from the index grating. For detunings such that Ωτs ≫ 1, population pulsations correspond to modulation of the intraband population arising from spectral hole burning. Our results show that NDFWM is then limited by the phase-mismatch effects governed by the transit time τ rather than by the intraband population-relaxation time T1. Significant NDFWM is expected to occur for detunings up to about 300 GHz for typical transit-time values of 3 psec in semiconductor lasers.
This paper analyzes the interaction of a strong wave and one or two probe waves with an intrinsic semiconductor medium which is partially inverted by an injection current. The many-body interactions of the electron-hole excitations are described using recently developed generalized Bloch equations for semiconductors. Coupled-mode equations for the different light fields are derived and solved, and predict that the gain and the coupling coefficients experience asymmetric dips. These dips are generated by scattering of the strong field off carrier-density pulsations induced by the pump-probe interference.
We present a theoretical model for the description of carrier and light dynamics in a quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifier that includes the inhomogeneous broadening of the quantum dots (QDs) via a spatially resolved statistical approach. The model is based on Maxwell-Bloch equations and takes into account the scattering of charge carriers between 2-D wetting layer states and bound quantum dot states, the amplification, and the wave-guiding of the light fields in the optical cavity. Simulations allow the analysis of the occupation probability of the quantum dot levels at steady state and during optical excitation by a femtosecond pulse. The influence of homogeneously and inhomogeneously broadened quantum dot media on spatial and spectral hole burning is revealed and discussed. It is shown that spatially varying dot properties lead to the reshaping of the optical pulse in the active medium.
Using a self-consistent delay-differential-equation model for the description of the nonlinear light propagation in InAs/InGaAs quantum-dot-in-a-well semiconductor optical amplifiers, we analyze the amplifier in a four-wave-mixing setup in terms of the conversion efficiency. Our model allows us to extract the hierarchy of nonlinear effects that constitute the four-wave-mixing process. We show that spectral hole burning in the quantum-dot medium facilitates wavelength conversion over a spectral detuning of several THz, whereas the effect of carrier heating and global carrier-density pulsations is found to be negligible. Furthermore we show that for high optical field amplitudes the emergence of Rabi oscillations leads to a flattening of the conversion efficiency, potentially allowing for ultra-broadband wavelength conversion and frequency comb generation.