THEORY OF A MULTIMODE QUASI-EQUILIBRIUM SEMICONDUCTOR-LASER

This paper gives a simple plane-wave multimode semiconductor-laser theory valid near threshold under the quasiequilibrium assumption that the total field envelope varies little in the intraband scattering times. Subject to these limitations, the theory is able to describe the full many-body effects in the semiconductor medium for a variety of field configurations including unidirectional, bidirectional, and two-mirror standing-wave lasers with nonuniform gain distributions. The theory predicts that spatial-hole burning can lead to multimode operation and that bidirectional ring-laser operation cannot occur. Generalization to larger field intensities is discussed within the framework of the quasiequilibrium assumption.