Quantum noise of free-carrier dispersion in semiconductor optical cavities

Ryan Hamerly and Hideo Mabuchi

Phys. Rev. A 92, 023819 – Published 12 August 2015

Abstract

This paper derives Langevin equations for an optical cavity where the dominant nonlinearity arises from free-carrier dispersion. We define a generalized Wigner function, compute a Fokker-Planck equation that approximates the master equation, and convert this to a system of stochastic differential equations. These equations are similar to the Wigner equations for an optical Kerr cavity, but have additional noise terms due to the incoherent carrier excitation and decay processes. We use these equations to simulate a phase-sensitive amplifier and latch and compare the results to a Kerr model.