Modeling of the lateral emission characteristics of high-power edge-emitting semiconductor lasers

In this work, numerical methods for the simulation of broad-area edge-emitting semiconductor lasers are employed to predict the propagation of the filamented optical field and determine emission characteristics including near-field and far-field profiles, beam width, divergence angle, polarization, and power over current. The frequency-domain and time-domain models utilize wave-optical beam propagation and account for the interaction of the optical field with the spatial (and temporal) varying carrier and temperature distributions inside the semiconductor laser cavity. The frequency-domain model is utilized to predict emission characteristics of single emitters and laser arrays, which differ in geometrical properties (including the contact width, cavity length and emitter pitch), epitaxial structure or facet reflectivity. The temporal evolution of the filamented field profiles is obtained with the time- domain model. In summary, the numerical diode laser models act as digital-twins of the real device, and with the simulation tools presented in this work the lateral emission characteristics of edge-emitting diode lasers can be predicted to the extent needed to design novel high-brightness lasers.