Effect of waveguiding properties on the axial mode competition in stripe-geometry semiconductor lasers

Based on the multimode rate equations taking account of transverse mode and carrier density distributions, the axial mode behavior in semiconductor lasers is investigated. The axial mode stability is significantly affected by these distributions. Above threshold, because of hole burning in the carrier density distribution, the gain at any wavelength except the lasing wavelength does not maintain the value at threshold. If the nonlasing mode wavelength is located in the gain decreasing spectral region, its light output decreases with the increase of current. These characteristics are observed in the experiment for a CSP laser. For axial mode stabilization, a large built-in refractive index step is effective so long as single transverse mode operation is maintained. If the injection current region is defined separately from the guiding region, the wider width of the injection current region leads to a more stabilized axial mode.