Theory of Sub-Picosecond Semiconductor Lasers

Theories of laser mode-locking were developed in the seventies for dye lasers. However, semiconductor lasers are characterized by quite different parameters and the approximations that can be justified for dye lasers break down for semiconductor lasers. In this paper we study the resulting pulse duration using the model introduced by New and Haus [1, 2] with both slow and fast absorbers. In the fast-and-slow-absorber model of Haus the electric field of the pulse after round-trip i is given by a i (t). While propagating through the cavity the pulse is modified by each of the elements of the cavity in some way.