Influence of interference coatings on the optical strength of semiconductor laser mirrors

Accurate analytic expressions are given and proven for the coefficients of reflection from a coating consisting of an arbitrary number of quarter-wave layers. These are used to show that the amplitude of the field at a "cleaved" mirror in a semiconductor laser decreases appreciably if the refractive indices of the neighboring layers in the interference coating differ substantially. The influence of these coatings on the output power of the laser radiation is studied. An analysis is made of the longitudinal field distribution inside a semiconductor laser and it is established that the true field at the mirrors differs appreciably from the averaged one.