<title>Dynamics of high-frequency lasers</title>

Abstract

For the first time, the rising low frequency relative intensity noise characteristic of semiconductor lasers is explained. Using a multi-mode rate equation analysis, it is shown that the magnitude and shape of the low frequency relative intensity noise is strongly dependent on the values of the differential carrier lifetime at threshold and other laser's parameters. It is further shown that a single mode laser will also exhibit enhanced low-frequency noise unless the side-mode suppression ratio is very high. The rate of spontaneous emission into the guided modes, the nonlinear gain coefficient and the carrier lifetime at lasing threshold are measured using an optical modulation technique. These results are used for understanding the noise and modulation properties of diode lasers.Optoelectronic Signal Processing for Phased-Array Antennas 11(1990) / 7 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/25/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx