Influence of refractive index nonlinearities on modulation and noise properties of semiconductor lasers

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Abstract
The modulation response and the spectral linewidth of singlemode semiconductor lasers are analysed by taking into account the nonlinear gain and the nonlinear refractive index in the rate equations. It is shown that the effect of nonlinear gain and index can be included through an effective linewidth enhancement factor αeff that is different for frequency modulation and for spectral linewidth. The effect of the nonlinear index is particularly strong in the case of frequency modulation where αeff can become zero or even negative for lasers operating on the red side of the gain peak. In the case of laser noise, αeff causes linewidth saturation but no rebroadening at high output powers. Our results indicate that gain and index nonlinearities are not the cause of linewidth rebroadening.