Non-Equilibrium Many-Body Influence on Mode-Locked Vertical External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers
Author
Kilen, Isak RagnvaldIssue Date
2017Keywords
Maxwell semiconductor Bloch equationsmode-locked pulses
non-equilibrium dynamics
numerical simulation
parallel computing
VECSEL
Advisor
Moloney, Jerome V.
Metadata
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The University of Arizona.Rights
Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.Abstract
Vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers are ideal testbeds for studying the influence of the non-equilibrium many-body dynamics on mode locking. As we will show in this thesis, ultra short pulse generation involves a marked departure from Fermi carrier distributions assumed in prior theoretical studies. A quantitative model of the mode locking dynamics is presented, where the semiconductor Bloch equations with Maxwell’s equation are coupled, in order to study the influences of quantum well carrier scattering on mode locking dynamics. This is the first work where the full model is solved without adiabatically eliminating the microscopic polarizations. In many instances we find that higher order correlation contributions (e.g. polarization dephasing, carrier scattering, and screening) can be represented by rate models, with the effective rates extracted at the level of second Born-Markov approximations. In other circumstances, such as continuous wave multi-wavelength lasing, we are forced to fully include these higher correlation terms. In this thesis we identify the key contributors that control mode locking dynamics, the stability of single pulse mode-locking, and the influence of higher order correlation in sustaining multi-wavelength continuous wave operation.Type
textElectronic Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.Degree Level
doctoralDegree Program
Graduate CollegeApplied Mathematics