Gain and photo luminescence in semiconductor lasers

A general scheme for the determination of vital operating characteristics of semiconductor lasers from low intensity photo-luminescence spectra is outlined and demonstrated. A fully microscopic model for the calculation of optical properties is coupled to a drift diffusion model for the mesoscopic charge and electric field distributions to calculate photo-luminescence and gain spectra in barrier-doped semiconductor laser material. Analyzing experiments on an optically pumped multi quantum-well structure it is demonstrated that the electric fields arising from the space charges of ionized dopants contribute to strongly excitation dependent optical properties, such as significant shifts of the luminescence versus peak gain wavelengths.