Optical simulation of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with noncylindrical oxide confinement

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL´s) have a high potential in telecommunication applications. We have developed two extensions of the weighted index method (WIM): the empirical effective-radius method (ER-WIM) and the hybrid analytical-numerical method. The ER-WIM defines two effective radii for a noncircular aperture. The two models proposed here aim to simplify the problem to a physically acceptable level. They are still reliable but computationally more feasible because they are significantly faster than a full-3D FEM and never require large computer resources.