First-principles, stochastic modeling of lasers

Background

Laser models have been developed for the past five decades and can be classified in large categories under the headings: "quantum mechanical models", "statistical models", "electrodynamical models" (so-called Maxwell-Bloch), "heuristic models" (typically rate-equations-based).

All have their merits and aim at answering specific questions -- for instance, statistical models provide information on fluctuations, while heuristic models aim at predicting laser behaviour with minimal effort (for applications).

Nanolasers have proven to be rather impervious to effective modeling. Rate-equations-based ones tend to provide wrong or ineffectual answers due to the strong role played by fluctuations, while more fundamental models require a substantial amount of work, difficult to carry out far from the thermodynamic limit.