Efficient First‐Principles Inverse Design of Nanolasers

ABSTRACT We develop and demonstrate a first‐principles approach, based on the nonlinear Maxwell–Bloch equations and steady‐state ab‐initio laser theory (SALT), for inverse design of nanostructured lasers, incorporating spatial hole‐burning corrections, threshold effects, out‐coupling efficiency, and gain diffusion. The resulting figure of merit exploits the high‐ regime of optimized laser cavities to perturbatively simplify the nonlinear model to a single linear “reciprocal” Maxwell solve. The consequences for laser‐cavity design, and in particular the strong dependence on the nature of the gain region, are demonstrated using topology optimization of both 2d and full 3d geometries.