Simulation of mode-locked surface-emitting lasers through a finite-difference time-domain algorithm.
An approach based on the finite-difference time-domain method is developed for simulating the dynamics of passive mode locking in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The material response is modeled by the effective semiconductor Bloch equations through a resonant polarization term in the Maxwell's equations. Nonlinear gain saturation is incorporated through a gain compression factor in the equation governing the dynamics of the resonant polarization. An extended-cavity VCSEL with a quantum-well saturable absorber is simulated, and stable mode-locking pulses are obtained. Fine features of the spatial profile of the mode-locked pulses are also studied within this approach.
Microelectronics Sciences Laboratories, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA. mayank.bahl@columbia.edu
Mayank
M
Bahl
Hongling
H
Rao
Nicolae C
NC
Panoiu
Richard M
RM
Osgood