Calculation of the propagation constant of optical modes inmultiquantum-well structures

A simple mathematical formalism is used to calculate the propagation constant β for optical modes (TE₀, TM₀ ) in multiquantum-well semiconductor laser structures. The energy correction due to narrow quantum wells, the energy dependence of the refractive indexes, and the energy dependence of electron and hole masses are taken into account. The data show that there is a considerable difference between the calculated values and the averaged values for β, especially for a small number of narrow quantum wells