A small-signal analysis of the modulation response of high-speed quantum-well lasers: effects of spectral hole burning, carrier heating, and carrier diffusion-capture-escape

Abstract

We present a small-signal analysis of the modulation response by simultaneously considering the effects of spectral hole burning, carrier heating, and carrier diffusion capture-escape. An explicit form of the small-signal modulation response is obtained and the nonlinear gain coefficients associated with each physical process are defined. Further simplifications in our results will give analytical forms for calculating the resonant frequency and damping rate of the modulation response. One of the simplified versions of our results is shown to agree with previous investigations. The effects of the carrier dephasing time, energy relaxation time, and diffusion-capture-escape times on the high-speed performance of QW lasers are theoretically investigated.