This article is cited in 14 papers

Lasers

Superfluorescence in semiconductor lasers

P. P. Vasil'ev

P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Abstract: An analysis is made of the conditions for the generation of superfluorescence pulses in an inverted medium of electron—hole pairs in a semiconductor. It is shown that strong optical amplification in laser semiconductor amplifiers characterised by αL ≫ 1 (α is the small-signal gain and L is the amplifier length) leads to suppression of phase relaxation of the medium during the initial stages of evolution of superfluorescence and to formation of a macroscopic dipole from electron – hole pairs. Cooperative emission of radiation in this system results in generation of a powerful ultrashort pulse of the optical gain, which interacts coherently with the semiconductor medium. It is shown that coherent pulsations of the optical field, observed earlier by the author in Q-switched semiconductor lasers, are the result of superfluorescence and of the coherent interaction between the optical field and the medium.

PACS: 42.50.Fx, 42.55.Px

Received: 24.04.1997

 English version: Quantum Electronics, 1997, 27:10, 860–865

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