Physics of Strained Quantum Well Lasers

When this publisher offered me the opportunity to \\Tite a book, some six years ago, I did not hesitate to say yes. I had just spent the last four years of graduate school struggling to understand the physics of strained quantum well lasers, and it seemed to me the whole experience was much more difficult that it should have been. For although many of the results I needed were easy to locate, the underlying physical premises and intervening steps were not. If only I had a book providing the derivations, I could have absorbed them and gone on my way. Such a book lies before you. It provides a unified and self-contained descrip­ tion of the essential physics of strained quantum well lasers, starting from first principles whenever feasible. The presentation I have chosen requires only the standard introductory background in quantum mechanics, solid state physics, and electromagnetics expected of entering graduate students in physics or elec­ trical engineering. A single undergraduate course in each of these subjects should be more than sufficient to follow the text. :'Iore advanced material on quantum mechanics is developed and collected in the first chapter. \Vhen pos­ sible, I have presented the results in a general setting and have later applied them to specific cases of interest. I find this the most satisfying way to ap­ proach the subject, and it has the additional benefit of solving many problems once and for all.

Table of Contents:
1. Quantum-Mechanical Preliminaries.- 1.1 Stationary States.- 1.2 Second-order Time-Independent Perturbation Theory.- 1.3 The Physical Interpretation of the Wavefunction.- 1.4 Periodic Boundary Conditions.- 1.5 The Density of States.- 1.6 Approximations for Time-Dependent Problems.- 1.7 Angular Momentum.- 1.8 Group Theory.- 1.9 Operator Algebra of the Harmonic Oscillator.- 1.10 Suggested Reading.- 2. Bulk Semiconductor Bandstructure.- 2.1 The One-Electron Approximation.- 2.2 Bloch’s Theorem.- 2.3 The Tight Binding Method.- 2.4 The 4 × 4 Effective Bond Orbital Model.- 2.5 Spin-Orbit Interactions: the 8 × 8 EBOM.- 2.6 The k · p Theory.- 2.7 Elasticity Theory.- 2.8 Deformation Potential Theory.- 2.9 Practical Simplifications.- 2.10 Suggested Reading.- 3. Electronic States in Quantum Wells.- 3.1 Normalization of the Bloch Functions.- 3.2 The Multiband Envelope Function Approximation.- 3.3 Heterestructures and Quantum Wells.- 3.4 Conduction Subbands in Quantum wells.- 3.5 Split-Off Subbands in Quantum Wells.- 3.6 Heavy and Light Hole Subbands in Quantum Wells.- 3.7 Summary of Quantum Well Bandstructure.- 3.8 Suggested reading.- 4. Waveguiding in Semiconductor Lasers.- 4.1 Optical Properties of Solids.- 4.2 Rectangular Waveguides.- 4.3 The Three-Layer Slab Waveguide.- 4.4 Two-Dimensional Waveguides.- 4.5 Waveguide Losses.- 4.6 Suggested Reading.- 5. Interaction of Matter and Radiation.- 5.1 Classical Electrodynamics.- 5.2 Quantum Electrodynamics.- 5.3 The Interaction of Electrons and Photons.- 5.4 The Matrix Elements ??f???? (±)?? i?.- 5.5 Absorption and Emission Rates.- 5.6 The Dipole Approximation.- 5.7 Spontaneous Emission Lifetime.- 5.8 Suggested Reading.- 6. Gain and Emission in Strained Quantum Well Lasers.- 6.1 Thermodynamics of Electrons and Holesin Quantum Wells.- 6.2 Optical Matrix Elements.- 6.3 Spontaneous Emission Rates in Solids.- 6.4 Material Gain in Solids.- 6.5 Fabry-Perot Lasers.- 6.6 Suggested Reading.- Appendices.- A-Lowdin Perturbation Theory.- B-Enumeration of the k·p Matrix Elements by Representation.- B.1 The Matrix Elements.- B.2 The Matrix Elements.- B.3 The Matrix Elements.- B.4.1.- B.4.2.- B.4.3.- B.5 Summary.- C-Material Parameters of Several III–V Compounds.