Abstract

In the broad-area semiconductor laser, schematically depicted in Fig. 1, the transverse width of the active lasing zone is large compared to typical internal length scales such as the diffusion length of the charge carriers or the diffraction length of the optical fields. In the dynamical behavior of the output intensity strikingly complex unstable optical filaments^2,3 can be observed as a consequence. Next to the spatial dependence, however, the interaction of the optical light field with the active semiconductor medium is strongly determined by the spectral properties of the semiconductor and by the local electron and hole occupation in the conduction and valence bands. The active medium, represented by its microscopic polarization and carrier distributions, acts as the source for the optical field generated by the annihilation of an electron-hole pair. Thus, in the theoretical description of the dynamics of the broad-area semiconductor laser, the behavior of the macroscopic device has to be treated self-consistently along with the active semiconductor medium.¹

© 1994 IEEE