Abstract
This article discusses the principle of operation and the basic material engineering aspects for the design of semiconductor lasers. The physics of the gain medium is analyzed with an emphasis on the role of many-body effects due to the Coulomb interaction of the carriers for the optical properties of the active semiconductor material. The two main types of laser resonators for diode lasers, Fabry-Perot resonators and vertical-cavity structures, are described. Finally, the dynamics of semiconductor lasers including the principles of short pulse generation and nonequilibrium gain dynamics is addressed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Encyclopedia of Modern Optics |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Pages | 462-468 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Volume | 1-5 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780128149829 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780128092835 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Coulomb effects in lasers
- Diode laser
- Fabry-Perot resonator
- Gain
- Laser dynamics
- Many-body effects
- Modelocking
- Semiconductor laser
- Short-pulse generation
- Vertical-cavity laser
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Engineering
- General Materials Science