A new method for the calculation of the emission spectrum of DFB and DBR lasers

A method based on transmission matrices that allows the emission spectra of arbitrarily complicated semiconductor laser structures to be computed below and above threshold has been developed. These can include active and passive periodic or uniform sections. As examples, the authors compute the emission spectra of a normal distributed feedback (DFB) laser, a DFB laser with a lambda /4 phase shifter, and a surface-emitting distributed Bragg reflector (DFB) laser. To do that, Petermann's method for calculating the spontaneous emission coupling coefficient has been extended to the case of a periodic waveguide. It is shown how the spontaneous emission, when treated correctly, can be used to measure the coupling coefficient of the grating in a DFB laser with a lambda /4 phase shifter.<
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