Effects of Pauli blocking on semiconductor laser intensity and phase noisespectra - art. no. 013818

In this paper we derive the intensity and phase noise spectra of a single-m ode semiconductor laser on the basis of an operatorial Langevin set of equa tions that includes the dynamics of the microscopic variables, i.e., the ca rrier polarization and their distribution over the k states. In particular we take into account the fact that the carriers pumped into the active laye r are subject to the blocking determined by Pauli exclusion principle. We d emonstrate that, due to the fastness of the carrier scattering and polariza tion dephasing processes, the noise spectra can be determined on the basis of a macroscopic linearized set of three equations for the two quadrature c omponents of the laser intensity and the total carrier number. A formal com parison with the paradigmatic results of [Yamamoto et al. Phys. Rev. A 34, 4025 (1986)] allows to deduce that the only essential difference arises fro m Pauli-induced pump blocking, which has the effect of increasing the low-f requency branch of the intensity noise spectrum. We demonstrate that, even for very small amounts of pump blocking, the low-frequency intensity noise steeply rises with the stationary value of the carrier density in the activ e layer, which depends on a great number of parameters. This result can exp lain the erratic behavior of the experimental findings and their discrepanc y with the standard theoretical predictions.