Photocounting statistics associated with temperature fluctuations in semiconductor lasers

Photoelectron counting distributions are obtained for sources which obey compound Poisson statistics. Various cases are considered in which the sources (semiconductor lasers) emit coherent light and their intensity fluctuates in accordance with a Gaussian distribution of operating temperatures. The lasers are otherwise assumed to be ideal, and the quantum efficiency of the detector is assumed to be unity. This paper represents an ideal situation where the source is the only concern in the calculation of the photoelectron counting distributions. It is found that for large temperature fluctuations (a > 10 K), a substantial downward shift of the peak of the photon probability density function is observed. The function becomes more asymmetric and the mean value decreases as the standard deviation of the temperature increases.