Traveling Wave Model for Frequency Comb Generation in Single Section Quantum Well Diode Lasers

Abstract

We present a traveling wave model for a semiconductor diode laser based on quantum wells. The gain model is carefully derived from first principles and implemented with as few phenomeno- logical constants as possible. The transverse energies of the quantum well confined electrons are discretized to automatically capture the effects of spectral and spatial hole burning, gain asym- metry, and the linewidth enhancement factor. We apply this model to semiconductor optical amplifiers and single-section phase-locked lasers. We are able to reproduce the experimental re- sults. The calculated frequency modulated comb shows potential to be a compact, chip-scale comb source without additional external components.