Role of thermal ejection of carriers in the burning of spatial holes in quantum dot lasers

The role of thermal carrier ejection from quantum dots and free carrier diffusion in the burning of spatial holes in semiconductor quantum dot lasers is analyzed. The balance of the spatially inhomogeneous population inversion in the longitudinal direction of the cavity is shown to be controlled by thermal ejection from quantum dots. Because of this circumstance, hole burning in quantum dot lasers can show up more strongly and the threshold for multimode lasing can be lower than in semiconductor lasers with three-dimensional active regions or quantum-well lasers. The threshold for multimode lasing is determined as a function of the dispersion in the quantum dot size, cavity length, and temperature for structures that have been optimized to minimize the threshold current density of the fundamental mode. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 33, 1076–1079 (September 1999)