Title :
Transverse-mode control of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers
Author :
Zhao, Y.G. ; McInerney, John G.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Phys., Beijing Univ., China
Abstract :
Transverse-mode control of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) has been investigated. A theoretical model takes into account the distributions of carriers, optical field, and temperature. Using a method of finding self-consistent solutions for the carrier diffusion, optical field, and thermal conduction equations, we have studied the influence of current spreading, injected current density, gain-guided aperture, and window diameter on the transverse modes. The calculated results agree well with those of experiments and show that the transverse-mode evolution of VCSELs depends on the changes of gain and refractive index induced by carriers and heating; decreasing temperature rise and profile width, current spreading, and gain-guided aperture dimension, increasing homogeneity of the injected carriers at the lasing region, and decreasing window diameter are effective methods to suppress high-order transverse modes.
Keywords :
current density; heat conduction; laser cavity resonators; laser modes; laser theory; quantum well lasers; surface emitting lasers; GaAs-AlGaAs; VCSEL; carrier diffusion; carrier distribution; current spreading; decreasing temperature rise; gain; gain-guided aperture; high-order transverse modes; homogeneity; injected current density; lasing region; optical field; profile width; refractive index; self-consistent solutions; temperature; thermal conduction equations; transverse-mode control; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers; window diameter; Apertures; Laser modes; Laser theory; Optical control; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Surface emitting lasers; Temperature distribution; Thermal conductivity; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;
Journal_Title :
Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JQE.1996.541681
