Semiconductor lasers with uniform longitudinal intensity distribution

Power-dependent nonuniform longitudinal intensity distribution leading to spectral and spatial instabilities is a major problem in semiconductor lasers. It is shown theoretically that a proper choice of the longitudinal distribution of the gain as well as that of the magnitude of the grating coupling coefficient will lead to a uniform intensity distribution in distributed feedback lasers. We also show that the widely used phase, rather than magnitude, control of the coupling coefficient cannot lead to a uniform intensity distribution when the facet reflectivities are zero.