Khorasani, S.; Zandi, H.; Bavafa, M.; Chamanzar, M. Harmonic content and relaxation resonant frequency of a modulated laser diode. (English) Zbl 1186.78034 Sci. Iran., Trans. D, Comput. Sci. Eng., Electr. Eng. 16, No. 2, 145-156 (2009). Summary: An analysis of the harmonic contents of the optical output power for an in-plane single mode laser diode is performed, and the results are described in detail. In the first step, the absolute value of power for each harmonic is obtained in terms of various laser diode parameters, and the variations of external parameters, such as modulation current, bias current and frequency, are discussed. The analysis is done by direct solution of the rate equations of an arbitrary laser diode for carrier and photon densities. It is known that the optical power has a nonlinear dependence on frequency, and the maximum optical power of each harmonic is attained in its resonance frequency. The resonant frequency is shown to be tunable by the bias currentthus we obtain exact expressions for the output power of various harmonics, allowing better optimization to gain improved results. We extend the approach to higher harmonics, and numerically calculate the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) versus major parameters, such as frequency, bias current and modulation current. Furthermore, we find optimal operation points in which the desired characteristics of the laser diode can be achieved. It is also possible for the sequence for every arbitrary single-mode laser structure to be developed by the approach presented in this work. MSC: 78A60 Lasers, masers, optical bistability, nonlinear optics Keywords:laser diode; optical modulation; relaxation resonant frequency; total harmonic distortion PDFBibTeX XMLCite \textit{S. Khorasani} et al., Sci. Iran., Trans. D, Comput. Sci. Eng., Electr. Eng. 16, No. 2, 145--156 (2009; Zbl 1186.78034)