Laser dynamics in self-pulsating quantum dot systems

The inclusion of saturable absorption within QD lasers readily produces self-pulsation at RT over a wide range of injection levels when using either a floating or negative potential on the absorber section of the device. The frequency of the oscillation is however, limited to the megahertz range, and temperature-dependent measurements show a marked thermal switch-off of the pulsation below 150 K. As such, the differential changes in the optical gain show a large degree of variation according to whether electrons and holes within the dot states are localized or coupled to the WL.