Spatial holeburning effects on the dynamics of vertical cavity surface-emitting laser diodes

Calculations are reported of the dynamic evolution of transverse modes in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL´s). It is shown that the spatial distribution of the modal fields plays an important role in determining the steady-state operating characteristics of the device. It is found that spatially separated modes can coexist by sharing the available gain, whereas strong competition occurs between modes that have a strong spatial overlap. The influence of carrier diffusion and spatial holeburning during the turn-on transient of the laser is elucidated, and the implications for the steady-state modal properties of the device are indicated