Laser diode rate equations

The laser diode rate equations model the electrical and optical performance of a laser diode. This system of ordinary differential equations relates the number or density of photons and charge carriers (electrons) in the device to the injection current and to device and material parameters such as carrier lifetime, photon lifetime, and the optical gain.

The rate equations may be solved by numerical integration to obtain a time-domain solution, or used to derive a set of steady state or small signal equations to help in further understanding the static and dynamic characteristics of semiconductor lasers.

The laser diode rate equations can be formulated with more or less complexity to model different aspects of laser diode behavior with varying accuracy.

Multimode rate equations

In the multimode formulation, the rate equations model a laser with multiple optical modes. This formulation requires one equation for the carrier density, and one equation for the photon density in each of the optical cavity modes:

:$frac\{dN\}\{dt\}\; =\; frac\{I\}\{eV\}\; -\; frac\{N\}\{\; au\_n\}\; -\; sum\_\{mu=1\}^\{mu=M\}G\_mu\; P\_mu$:

where:

M is the number of modes modelled, μ is the mode number, and subscript μ has been added to G, Γ, and β to indicate these properties may vary for the different modes.

The modal gain

G_μ, the gain of the μ^th mode, can be modelled by a parabolic dependence of gainon wavelength as follows:

:$G\_mu\; =\; frac\{alpha\; N\; [1-(2frac\{lambda(t)-lambda\_mu\}\{deltalambda\_g\})^2]\; -\; alpha\; N\_0\}\{1\; +\; epsilon\; sum\_\{mu=1\}^\{mu=M\}P\_mu\}$

where:α is the gain coefficient and ε is the gain compression factor (see below). λ_μ is the wavelength of the μ^th mode, δλ_g is the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the gain curve, the centre of which is given by

:$lambda(t)=lambda\_0\; +\; frac\{k(N\_\{th\}\; -\; N(t))\}\{N\_\{th$

where λ₀ is the centre wavelength for N = N_th and k is the spectral shift constant (see below). N_th is the carrier density at threshold and is given by

:$N\_\{th\}=N\_\{tr\}\; +\; frac\{1\}\{alpha\; au\_pGamma\}$

where N_tr is the carrier density at transparency.

β_μ is given by:

where

β₀ is the spontaneous emission factor, λ_s is the centre wavelength for spontaneous emission and δλ_s is the spontaneous emission FWHM. Finally, λ_μ is the wavelength of the μ^th mode and is given by

:$lambda\_mu=lambda\_0\; -\; mudeltalambda\; +\; frac\{(n-1)deltalambda\}\{2\}$

where δλ is the mode spacing.

Gain Compression

The gain term, G, cannot be independent of the high power densities found insemiconductor laser diodes. There are several phenomena which cause the gain to'compress' which are dependent upon optical power. The two main phenomena are
spatial hole burning and spectral hole burning.

Spatial hole burning occurs as a result of the standing wave nature of the opticalmodes. Increased lasing power results in decreased carrier diffusion efficiency whichmeans that the stimulated recombination time becomes shorter relative to the carrierdiffusion time. Carriers are therefore depleted faster at the crest of the wave causing adecrease in the modal gain.

Spectral hole burning is related to the gain profile broadening mechanisms suchas short intraband scattering which is related to power density.

To account for gain compression due to the high power densities in semiconductor lasers, the gain equation is modified such that it becomes related to the inverse of the optical power. Hence, the following term in the denominator of the gain equation :

:$1\; +\; epsilon\; sum\_\{mu=1\}^\{mu=M\}P\_mu$

pectral Shift

Dynamic wavelength shift in semiconductor lasers occurs as a result of the changein refractive index in the active region during intensity modulation. It is possible toevaluate the shift in wavelength by determining the refractive index change of the activeregion as a result of carrier injection. A complete analysis of spectral shift during directmodulation found that the refractive index of the active region varies proportionally to carrier density and hence the wavelength varies proportionally to injected current.

Experimentally, a good fit for the shift in wavelength is given by:

:$deltalambda=kleft(sqrt\{frac\{I\_0\}\{I\_\{th\}-1\; ight)$

where I₀ is the injected current and I_th is the lasing threshold current.