Hi Dear All
I would like to simulate a mode locked semiconductor laser.
Does anyone know what is the best software to do it?
As the previous answers suggest, most of the time people generate their own simulations. However there are a few tools available.
GLAD by AOR is both horrible and wonderful. It has been around a long time and is pretty much the baby of one man. His approach is user hostile. It is structured like a programming language and is both archaic and arcane. More importantly the structure is whatever was in his head and it is nearly impossible to figure out how to assemble a model. It winds up being so difficult to figure out that most people give up in frustration. That’s the bad. The good is that it is tremendously functional. There are functions that describe everything that might occur in any kind of laser. Most of them work perfectly (be warned. Some don’t. For example some errors in polarization through components, the bounce slab function is completely wrong). Once you manage to construct the model it does a tremendously good job. I have had extremely good results replicating transverse mode, temporal pulse dynamics, efficiency etc of many real lasers. There are massive manuals and copious examples. Opaque, but copious. So, if you can stand to tough it out and figure out how to use it, it is a very capable tool. Again, most people can’t stand it, so be warned
LasCad is a much easier to use, but less capable application. I’ve found this useful for exploring basic parameters. It’s been a while, so it may have more capability now. It has a very good easy to use GUI that makes it easy to build laser models. However, I’ve always found the choices of components, pump profiles, etc. is somewhat limiting and never quite allow matching the real laser I’m modeling. I‘m not sure why, but I’ve also never had as much success matching the observed transverse mode and temporal characteristics of my real lasers. Nevertheless, I think it’s great for laying out a cavity, choosing curvatures, and examining stability, etc
The MATLAB and Simulink coud be the best solution for your case where the MATLAB, with its vast library of toolboxes and Simulink for system modeling, can be used to simulate mode-locked diode lasers. Custom scripts can model the laser dynamics and interaction with electronic components.
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