TRANSVERSE-MODE COMPETITION EFFECTS OBSERVED IN THE NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF TRANSIENTS IN GAIN-GUIDED SEMICONDUCTOR-LASER ARRAYS

This paper reports a numerical analysis of transient turnon in a gain-guided semiconductor laser array. The self-consistent approach, valid in the strong-coupling limit, treats the array as a single waveguide laser with a transversely varying refractive index. The program first solves for the modes of this system without considering stimulated emission. The overall modal gain is then inserted into the rate equations in order to calculate a photon density; this results in a new spatial gain distribution, which is turn causes changes to the modal intensity profiles. From this analysis we find both steady-state results and instabilities which result from mode competition. The method of approach is to solve instantaneous eigenvalue equations.