SUBPICOSECOND ELECTRODYNAMICS OF DISTRIBUTED-BRAGG-REFLECTOR MICROLASERS - RESULTS FROM FINITE-DIFFERENCE TIME-DOMAIN SIMULATIONS

With advances in nanofabrication techniques leading to ever smaller an d more intricate semiconductor laser structures, a detailed understand ing of the electrodynamics of these micron-scale devices is required i n order to optimize their design. The finite difference time domain (F D-TD) Maxwell's equations solver holds much promise for providing high ly realistic simulations of novel microcavity lasers. We have extended the FD-TD algorithm to include the effects of frequency-dependent gai n and gain saturation. This approach and its application to the modeli ng of distributed Bragg reflector microlasers is presented.