This version is available at https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/35896/ Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to the Strathprints administrator: strathprints@strath.ac.ukThe Strathprints institutional repository (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) is a digital archive of University of Strathclyde research outputs. It has been developed to disseminate open access research outputs, expose data about those outputs, and enable the management and persistent access to Strathclyde's intellectual output. This article gives an overview of the microscopic theory used to quantitatively model a wide range of semiconductor laser gain materials. As a snapshot of the current state of research, applications to a variety of actual quantum-well systems are presented. Detailed theoryexperiment comparisons are shown and it is analysed how the theory can be used to extract poorly known material parameters. The intrinsic laser loss processes due to radiative and non-radiative Auger recombination are evaluated microscopically.The results are used for realistic simulations of verticalexternal-cavity surface-emitting laser systems. To account for nonequilibrium effects, a simplified model is presented using pre-computed microscopic scattering and dephasing rates. Prominent deviations from quasi-equilibrium carrier distributions are obtained under strong in-well pumping conditions.