# Quantum Maxwell-Bloch Equations for Spontaneous Emission in Optical Semiconductor Devices

## 1 Introduction

In an optical semiconductor device, spontaneously emitted light may have significant influence on the spatiotemporal dynamics of the (coherent) light field. Undoubtedly, the spatial coherence of spontaneous emission and amplified spontaneous emission is most important close to threshold or in devices with a light field output dominated by spontaneous emission such as superluminescent diodes and ultra low threshold semiconductor lasers . Even in more common devices such as VCSEL-arrays, gain guided or multi-stripe and broad area semiconductor lasers, the spontaneous emission factor is modified by the amplification and absorption of spontaneous emission into the non-lasing modes  and amplified spontaneous emission may be responsible for multi mode laser operation and for finite spatial coherence.

In the present article, Quantum Maxwell-Bloch Equations (QMBE) are presented, which describe the spatiotemporal dynamics of both, stimulated amplification and (amplified) spontaneous emission on equal footing in terms of expectation values of field-field correlations, dipole-field correlations, carrier densities, fields and dipoles. In particular, the quantum dynamics of the interaction between the light field and the carrier system is formulated in terms of Wigner distributions for the carriers and of spatially continuous amplitudes for the light field. Analytical results for the spontaneous emission factor $`\beta `$ and the far field pattern of amplified spontaneous emission in broad area quantum well lasers are discussed.

## 2 Quantum Maxwell-Bloch Equations

The Quantum Maxwell-Bloch equations for the carrier density $`N(𝐫_{})`$ and the Wigner distributions of the field-field ($`I(𝐫_{};𝐫_{}^{})`$) and the field-dipole ($`C(𝐫_{};𝐫_{}^{},𝐤_{})`$) correlation

$`{\displaystyle \frac{}{t}}N\left(𝐫_{}\right)=`$ (1)   
$`\gamma N\left(𝐫_{}\right)+D_{amb}\mathrm{\Delta }N\left(𝐫_{}\right)+j\left(𝐫_{}\right)`$   
$`+ig_0\sqrt{\nu _0}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle d^2𝐤_{}\left(C(𝐫;𝐫_{},𝐤_{})_{z=0}C^{}(𝐫;𝐫_{},𝐤_{})_{z=0}\right)}`$   
$`{\displaystyle \frac{}{t}}C(𝐫;𝐫_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{},𝐤_{})=`$ (2)   
$`\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }+i\mathrm{\Omega }(𝐤_{})+i{\displaystyle \frac{\omega _0}{2k_0^2}}\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐫\right)C(𝐫;𝐫_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{},𝐤_{})`$   
$`+ig_0\sqrt{\nu _0}\left(f_{eq}^e(k_{};N(𝐫_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{}))+f_{eq}^h(k_{};N(𝐫_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{}))1\right)I(𝐫;𝐫^{})_{z^{}=0}`$   
$`+ig_0\sqrt{\nu _0}\delta (𝐫_{}𝐫_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{})\delta (z)f_{eq}^e(k_{};N(𝐫_{}))f_{eq}^h(k_{};N(𝐫_{}))`$   
$`{\displaystyle \frac{}{t}}I(𝐫;𝐫^{})=`$ (3)   
$`i{\displaystyle \frac{\omega _0}{2k_0^2}}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐫\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐫^{}\right)I(𝐫;𝐫^{})`$   
$`ig_0\sqrt{\nu _0}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle d^2𝐤_{}\left(C(𝐫;𝐫_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{},𝐤_{})\delta (z^{})C^{}(𝐫^{};𝐫_{},𝐤_{})\delta (z)\right)}.`$   
describe the interaction of a quantum well with a quantized light field, where the two-dimensional coordinates parallel to a quantum well at $`z=0`$ are marked by the index $``$. In the QMBE, many particle renormalizations are not mentioned explicitly, but can be added in a straightforward manner . Moreover, the Wigner distributions of electrons (e) and holes (h), have been approximated by corresponding quasi equilibrium Fermi distributions $`f_{eq}^{e,h}(𝐤_{},N(𝐫_{}))`$ which are associated with a local carrier density of $`N(𝐫_{})`$ at a temperature $`T`$. In Eq. (1), $`D_{amb}`$ is the ambipolar diffusion constant, $`j\left(𝐫_{}\right)`$ the injection current density, $`\gamma `$ the rate of spontaneous recombinations by non-radiative processes and/or spontaneous emission into modes not considered in $`I(𝐫_{},𝐫_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{})`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐫`$ is the Lapalcian with respect to $`𝐫`$. Another major feature of the semiconductor medium is the fact that the difference $`\mathrm{\Omega }(𝐤_{})`$ between the dipole oscillation frequency and the band gap frequency $`\omega _0`$ is a function of the semiconductor band structure. Here we model the band structure by assuming parabolic bands such that $`\mathrm{\Omega }(𝐤_{})=\left(\mathrm{}/(2m_{eff}^e)+\mathrm{}/(2m_{eff}^h)\right)𝐤_{}^2`$. Moreover, the carrier dynamics of the interband-dipole $`p(𝐫_{},𝐤_{})`$ and the dipole part of the field-dipole correlation $`C(𝐫_{};𝐫_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{},𝐤_{})`$ depend on a correlation of the electrons with the holes. The relaxation of this correlation is modeled in terms of a rate of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(𝐤)`$ which may be interpreted as the total momentum dependent scattering rate in the carrier system.

In the QMBE, the three dimensional intensity function of the light field $`I(𝐫;𝐫^{})`$ may be interpreted as a single photon density matrix or as a spatial field-field correlation. The light-matter interaction is mediated by the correlation function $`C(𝐫;𝐫_{}^{},𝐤_{})`$ which describes the correlation of the complex field amplitude at $`𝐫`$ and the complex dipole amplitude of the $`𝐤_{}`$ transition at $`𝐫_{}^{}`$. The phase of this complex correlation corresponds to the phase difference between the dipole oscillations and the field oscillations. Finally, the source of emission is the imaginary part of the field-dipole correlation $`C(𝐫;𝐫_{}^{},𝐤_{})`$. The quantum Maxwell- Bloch equations thus show how this imaginary correlation originates either from stimulation by $`I(𝐫;𝐫^{})`$ or spontaneously from the product of electron and hole densities.

## 3 Spontaneous emission factor

The spontaneous emission factor $`\beta `$ is generally defined as the fraction of spontaneous emission being emitted into the cavity mode .

On the basis of our theory, an analytical expression for $`\beta `$ may be obtained for zero temperature where the k-space integrals may be solved analytically on the assumption of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ being independent of $`𝐤_{}`$. The analytical result reads

$$\beta (\omega ,\mathrm{\Omega }_f)=\frac{3\sigma }{2\pi \rho _LWL\mathrm{\Omega }_f}\left(\mathrm{arctan}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_f\omega }{\mathrm{\Gamma }+\kappa }\right)+\mathrm{arctan}\left(\frac{\omega }{\mathrm{\Gamma }+\kappa }\right)\right),$$
(4)   
with the density of light field modes (at the band edge frequency $`\omega _0`$) $`\rho _L=\omega _0^2\pi ^2c^3ϵ_r^{3/2}`$. The Fermi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_f(N)=\pi \mathrm{}MN`$, with the effective carrier mass $`M=\left(m_{eff}^e+m_{eff}^h\right)/\left(m_{eff}^em_{eff}^h\right)`$, expresses, in particular, the carrier density dependence of $`\beta `$. For $`\mathrm{\Omega }_f,\omega \mathrm{\Gamma }+\kappa `$ we recover the result typically given in the literature (e.g. ) being independent of $`N`$. Fig. 1 shows the deviation of the spontaneous emission factor from this value as the Fermi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_f`$ passes the point of resonance with the cavity mode. Fig. 1 illustrates, in particular, the carrier density dependence of $`\beta `$ for three modes with frequencies above the band gap frequency given by (a) $`\omega =0`$, (b) $`\omega =0.5(\mathrm{\Gamma }+\kappa )`$, and (c) $`\omega =\mathrm{\Gamma }+\kappa `$. Most notably, $`\beta `$ is always smaller than the usual estimate given by $`\beta (\omega =\mathrm{\Omega }_f=0)`$, which is based on the assumption of ideal resonance between the transition frequency and the cavity mode.

## 4 Farfield pattern of a broad area laser

In large spatially inhomogeneous laser devices, the spatial coherence of amplified spontaneous emission defines an angular distribution of the emitted light in the far field. Spatial coherence increases as the laser threshold is crossed. For $`T=0`$ we may obtain an analytical expression for the far-field intensity distribution of a broad area semiconductor laser . Figure 2 shows the far field intensity distribution for different carrier densities below threshold defined by a pinning carrier density $`N_p`$. Figure 2 (b) shows the intensity distribution for carrier densities halfway towards threshold. Already, the intensity maxima move to angles of $`\pm 15^{}`$, corresponding to the frequency at which the gain spectrum has its maximum. In the case of Fig. 2(c), the threshold region is very close to the pinning density. The peaks in the far field pattern narrow as the laser intensity is increased. Consequently the far field pattern indeed is a measure of the spatial coherence – similar as the linewidth of the laser spectrum is a measure of temporal coherence. It is therefore desirable to consider quantum noise effects in the spatial patterns of optical systems. In the context of squeezing, such patterns have been investigated by Lugiato and coworkers . The laser patterns presented here are based on the same principles. Usually, however, the strong dissipation prevents squeezing in laser systems unless the pump-noise fluctuations are suppressed .

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

Quantum Maxwell-Bloch equations (QMBE) for spatially inhomogeneous optical semiconductor devices have been presented, which take into account the quantum mechanical nature of the light field as well as that of the carrier system and thus describe the effects of coherent spatiotemporal quantum fluctuations. An example of the spatial coherence characteristics described by the QMBE, an analytic expression for the density dependence of the spontaneous emission factor $`\beta `$ and spatial profiles of the far field distribution of a broad area edge emitting laser are discussed.