2002/01/01 by J.S. Gustavsson, Johan Gustavsson, Josip Vukušić +5 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Semiconductor Lasers and Optical Devices #Photonic and Optical Devices #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies
paper · doi:10.1109/3.980274
We present a quasi-3-D dynamic model of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The interdependent processes of carrier transport, heat generation and dissipation, and optical fields are solved self-consistently for each point in time and space. An effective index model is adopted for the evaluation of the optical fields in the complex layer structure. The inclusion of a temperature- and carrier-density-dependent refractive index, and its time dependence, allows us to study the evolution of the transverse optical field distributions under dynamic conditions. The model is applied to a typical index-guided structure with a 7-/spl mu/m oxide aperture. A direct comparison is made using "cold" cavity modes, which is a normal technique when modeling the dynamics of VCSELs. Significant discrepancies are demonstrated both at smalland large-signal modulation, which indicates the need of a more sophisticated model for accurately predicting and understanding the geometry-dependent modal evolution.