Transverse-mode competition effects observed in the numerical simulation of transients in gain-guided semiconductor laser arrays

A numerical analysis of transient turn-on in a gain-guided semiconductor laser array is presented. The self-consistent approach, valid in the strong-coupling limit, treats the array as a single waveguide laser with a transversely varying refractive index. The program first solves for the modes of this system without considering stimulated emission. The overall modal gain is then inserted into the rate equations in order to calculate a photon density; this results in a new spatial gain distribution, which in turn causes changes to the modal intensity profiles. This analysis is used to find both steady-state results and instabilities which result from mode competition. The approach is to solve instantaneous eigenvalue equations.<
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