Comparative Analysis of Various Designs of Oxide-Confined Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Diode Lasers

In the paper, the comparative analysis of the room-temperature (RT) continuous-wave (CW) threshold operation of various designs of oxide-confined VCSELs is carried out using the standard 1.3-mum intracavity-contacted oxide-confined GaAs-based quantum-well (GaIn)(NAs)/GaAs VCSEL as a typical example. The comparison is performed with the aid of the comprehensive fully self-consistent optical-electrical-thermal-gain model. The lowest RT CW lasing threshold has been found to be achieved in the 1.5lambda-cavity design with only one oxide aperture (for smaller active regions) and in the 3lambda-cavity design with two oxide apertures (for larger ones). On the other hand, to reach the single-fundamental-mode operation and the longer lasing wavelength, the 3lambda-cavity VCSEL with one oxide aperture is the best lasing design, especially for relatively large active regions