Modeling of Fluctuations in Dynamical Optoelectronic Device Simulations within a Maxwell-Density Matrix Langevin Approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive simulation tool that models noise and fluctuations in active photonic devices like quantum cascade lasers using a Maxwell-density matrix Langevin approach, enabling detailed analysis of nonlinear and quantum optical phenomena.

Contribution

It develops a full-wave Maxwell-density matrix simulation framework with stochastic noise terms for accurate modeling of quantum optoelectronic device dynamics.

Findings

Simulates noise properties in quantum cascade lasers.

Captures nonlinear and nonclassical optical phenomena.

Provides a publicly available simulation implementation.

Abstract

We present a full-wave Maxwell-density matrix simulation tool including c-number stochastic noise terms for the modeling of the spatiotemporal dynamics in active photonic devices, such as quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) and quantum dot (QD) structures. The coherent light-matter interaction in such devices plays an important role in the generation of frequency combs and other nonlinear and nonclassical optical phenomena. Since the emergence of nonlinear and nonclassical features is directly linked to the noise properties, detailed simulations of the noise characteristics are required for the development of low-noise quantum optoelectronic sources. Our semiclassical simulation framework is based on the Lindblad equation for the electron dynamics, coupled with Maxwell's equations for the optical propagation in the laser waveguide. Fluctuations arising from interactions of the optical field and quantum system with their reservoirs are treated within the quantum Langevin theory. Here, the fluctuations are included by adding stochastic c-number terms to the Maxwell-density matrix equations. The implementation in the mbsolve dynamic simulation framework is publicly available.