Closed loop design of active semiconductor quantum well material systems

Semiconductor quantum well active structures are pervasive in many applications of defense related systems ranging from low power edge (DFB), VCSEL and VCSEL emitter arrays to high power low brightness broad area emitters and diode bars. Recent breakthroughs in the development of a new class of high brightness vertical external cavity (VECSEL) emitters offers the potential to replace solid state YAG kW-class laser weapons systems. Remarkably, despite the maturity and dramatic improvement in quality of semiconductor QW growth over the past three decades, there has been no truly predictive means of designing the semiconductor active structure and fast-tracking to a final packaged device. We will describe a fully self-consistent microscopic many-body approach to calculate optical gain, absorption, refractive index spectra and nonradiative recombination rates for a broad class of semiconductor quantum well material systems. The theoretical calculations are free of ad hoc parameter adjustments and provide, for the first time, a means of designing an active semiconductor epi-strucrure in a predictive manner.