THE STATISTICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SWITCH-ON DELAY IN SINGLE-MODE SEMICONDUCTOR-LASERS .2. PATTERN EFFECTS

The theory of stochastic processes as applied to photon emission and a bsorption events is used to calculate the distribution of switch-on de lay in directly modulated semiconductor lasers down to a probability o f 10(-10). In this second paper, the influence of a previous light pul se on the delay of a given pulse is investigated. The probability dist ribution of photon number in the dying remnants of the first pulse is examined under the relevant transient conditions of gain and loss, and is found to evolve in relative width and shape in a way which depends on only one parameter. This parameter, which consists of an integral over time of the reciprocal of the average photon number, is obtained from a solution of the deterministic rate equations and is used to ded uce the delay distribution of the subsequent pulse. The results, altho ugh sensitively dependent on the conditions, are supported by experime nt.