Abstract

Intracavity four—wave mixing (FWM) experiments have been recently reported for semiconductor lasers and amplifiers /1,2,3/. Frequency mixing within the active area of the semiconductor results in high intensities of the newly generated signals which is of great interest from a practical as well as a fundamental point of view. A first quantitative but phenomenological treatment of the experimental results was based on the conventional nonlinear optics description introducing a third order susceptibility /2/. However, the basic question on the microscopic origin of the nonlinear process remained unanswered in this analysis. Agrawal /4/ suggested a modulation of the carrier density at the beat frequency (population pulsations) as the relevant mechanism.

© 1988 Optical Society of America