TY - JOUR

T1 - Numerical Investigation on Feedback Insensitivity in Semiconductor Nanolasers

AU - Fan, Yuanlong

AU - Hong, Yanhua

AU - Li, Pui

N1 - This work was supported in part by the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under Grant EP/P006027/1 and in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61505137 and Grant 61775158.

PY - 2019/11

Y1 - 2019/11

N2 - This paper presents numerical investigations into the effect of feedback phase on the stability of semiconductor nanolasers (SNLs) in presence of the external optical feedback (EOF). For this purpose, numerical solutions are obtained from rate equations where the effects of Purcell cavity-enhanced spontaneous emission factor F and an enhanced spontaneous emission coupling factor β are included. In this way, a phase-insensitive stable SNL is identified when the feedback coupling fraction is below a critical threshold, ηc. Furthermore, the relationship between ηc and two other important system parameters, namely the injection current (Idc) and the initial external cavity length (L0), is studied. The results show that ηc has a bi-exponential relationship with either Idc or L0. Moreover, the influence of F on the ηc is evaluated and it is found that ηc increases with the increase of F. The results presented in this paper provide practical guidelines for the design of phase-insensitive stable SNLs which are useful for densely integrated photonic circuits based applications such as optical communications and sensing.

AB - This paper presents numerical investigations into the effect of feedback phase on the stability of semiconductor nanolasers (SNLs) in presence of the external optical feedback (EOF). For this purpose, numerical solutions are obtained from rate equations where the effects of Purcell cavity-enhanced spontaneous emission factor F and an enhanced spontaneous emission coupling factor β are included. In this way, a phase-insensitive stable SNL is identified when the feedback coupling fraction is below a critical threshold, ηc. Furthermore, the relationship between ηc and two other important system parameters, namely the injection current (Idc) and the initial external cavity length (L0), is studied. The results show that ηc has a bi-exponential relationship with either Idc or L0. Moreover, the influence of F on the ηc is evaluated and it is found that ηc increases with the increase of F. The results presented in this paper provide practical guidelines for the design of phase-insensitive stable SNLs which are useful for densely integrated photonic circuits based applications such as optical communications and sensing.

KW - Optical feedback

KW - photonic integrated circuits

KW - semiconductor nanolasers

U2 - 10.1109/JSTQE.2019.2899765

DO - 10.1109/JSTQE.2019.2899765

M3 - Article

VL - 25

JO - IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics

JF - IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics

SN - 1077-260X

IS - 6

ER -