Optoelectronic device simulation: Optical modeling for semiconductor optical amplifiers and solid state lighting.

摘要

Recent advances in optoelectronic devices require sophisticated optical simulation and modeling. These tiny semiconductor device structures, such as semiconductor lasers and light emitting diodes (LED), not only need detailed electrical computation, such as band structure, carrier transportation, and electron-hole recombination under different external voltages, but also require comprehensive optical modeling, such as photon generation and propagation.; Optical modeling also includes waveguide structure calculations, guided mode and leakage mode identification, as well far-field pattern prediction using optical ray tracing. In modeling semiconductor lasers, light emission and propagation can be treated using the single mode of wave optics, the so-called photon propagation equation coupled with carrier transport equations. These differential equations can be numerically solved using the Finite Difference Method (FDM). In the LED modeling, the main tools are based on optical ray tracing, and photons are treated as light emissions with random directions and polarizations. Optical waveguide theory is used to qualitatively analyze photon emissions inside a LED chip, and helps to design the LED device structure.; One important area of semiconductor laser modeling is the optical simulation of the wavelength converter based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA). This wavelength converter is a critical device in optical communication, and it can copy information from one wavelength to anther through cross-gain modulation. Some numerical methods have been developed to model the wavelength conversion. In these methods, solutions are found by solving differential equations in the time domain using FDM. In all previous models, the waveguide internal loss is assumed uniform across the cavity of the SOA, or the gain coefficient is based on the polynomial approximation method, i.e., the gain coefficient is assumed proportional to the difference between the carrier and transparency carrier densities; the differential gain is assumed constant accordingly. This assumption is only valid for wavelengths close to the gain peak wavelength. As a result, high accuracy for wideband wavelength conversion is not guaranteed. We proposed a steady state numerical model of wavelength converters based on cross-gain modulation in semiconductor optical amplifiers. In this model, a new model of the gain coefficient developed by Connelly was applied, which also includes the internal loss variation with the electron carrier density. Each physical variable, such as the carrier density, gain coefficient, differential gain, and internal loss, spatially varies across the SOA cavity and is numerically calculated throughout the device. This model can predicts wavelength-dependent characteristics of a wavelength converter of the SOA in both large and small signal regimes. Some key performance factors of SOA wavelength converters, such as selection of pump and probe wavelengths and power, length of SOA cavities, conversion efficiency and bandwidth, system performance difference between up and down conversions can be modeled and optimized using this numerical model.; Most LED modeling techniques are based on optical ray tracing to predict the light extraction efficiency, and the light extraction efficiency is a critical parameter to evaluate LEDs. Here, we proposed a hybrid method to simulate the lighting efficiency of LED chips, where both guided wave theory and geometric optical ray tracing are applied. Guided wave optics is used to identify guided modes and leakage modes inside the LED active layer, and its device structure can be optimized to increase leakage modes so that the lighting extraction efficiency is improved. On the other hand, Monte Carlo optical ray tracing is used to quantitatively determine optical extraction efficiency. Moreover, this method can model the light distribution and far-field illumination pattern. Both single wavelength LEDs and dual-wav