Microscopic modeling of radiative losses in semiconductor laser structures

Radiative losses of laser structures have been investigated using the semiconductor luminescence equations. This microscopic theory allows to predict losses due to spontaneous emission for structures without empirical fit parameters and using as input only the structural design and basic band structure parameters. The strength of radiative losses varies over a range of many orders of magnitude. Deviations from the often assumed proportionality of radiative losses to the square of the carrier density occur especially for high densities.