LIDAR System based on a High Brightness Semiconductor Laser and Single Photon Counting Detection for Space-borne Atmospheric CO2 Monitoring

We theoretically investigate a dynamical regime, experimentally observed in monolithically integrated master oscillator power amplifiers emitting at 1.5 7 μm, consisting in large emission wavelength jumps of the device from the Bragg wavelength to that of the gain peak. Our analysis is based on numerical simulations by means of a travelling wave model that incorporates spatial effects such as spatial hole burning and coupled-cavity effects. Thermal effects are included by considering the optical response of the quantum well active medium within the quasi-equilibrium approximation at finite temperature, with a phenomenological description of the redshift of the gain peak and the changes in the background material refractive index by means of self- and cross-heating coefficients for both sections. We find that whereas the thermally-induced index changes are the responsible of the modal jumps between consecutive modes, the carrier-induced refractive index changes are the responsible of the jumps occurring between the Bragg wavelength and the gain peak.