Spontaneous emission in semiconductor microcavity post lasers

A complete and self-consistent model for the evaluation of spontaneous emission in microcavity semiconductor post lasers is presented. It takes into account the continuous electromagnetic field spectrum of the resonator and the carrier density dependence of all the parameters; in addition, valence band mixing is included in the computation of the band structure. Both the total recombination rate due to spontaneous emission and the beta factor are computed and discussed. Numerical examples are reported for lambda/2 and lambda cavities since both of them present interesting aspects. In particular for the second case the problem of lateral radiation is investigated.