Spatial structure of lasing modes in wave-chaotic semiconductor microcavities

TL;DR

This study investigates how the geometry of wave-chaotic semiconductor microcavities influences the spatial distribution of lasing modes, combining experimental measurements with numerical simulations to reveal geometry-driven intensity patterns.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of experimental and numerical boundary intensity distributions in wave-chaotic semiconductor lasers, emphasizing the role of cavity shape.

Findings

Boundary intensity distributions are highly inhomogeneous.

Experimental results agree well with ray tracing and mode calculations.

Cavity geometry primarily determines wave-chaotic laser mode patterns.

Abstract

We present experimental and numerical studies of broad-area semiconductor lasers with chaotic ray dynamics. The emission intensity distributions at the cavity boundaries are measured and compared to ray tracing simulations and numerical calculations of the passive cavity modes. We study two different cavity geometries, a D-cavity and a stadium, both of which feature fully chaotic ray dynamics. While the far-field distributions exhibit fairly homogeneous emission in all directions, the emission intensity distributions at the cavity boundary are highly inhomogeneous, reflecting the non-uniform intensity distributions inside the cavities. The excellent agreement between experiments and simulations demonstrates that the intensity distributions of wave-chaotic semiconductor lasers are primarily determined by the cavity geometry. This is in contrast to conventional Fabry-Perot broad-area lasers for which the intensity distributions are to a large degree determined by the nonlinear interaction of the lasing modes with the semiconductor gain medium.