Spatial hole burning effects in gain-guided vertical cavity laser diodes

Many of the numerous applications of vertical cavity laser diodes being nowadays under discussion require single transverse mode emission behavior. A quantitative understanding of the factors limiting the maximum achievable single-mode output power is thus vital for further device optimization. We have theoretically investigated the effects of spatial hole burning in the active zone on the emission characteristics of gain-guided AlAs-GaAs DBR laser diodes in a self-consistent manner. The small single-mode power of low threshold devices can be attributed to strong hole burning induced by the excessively enhanced internal electric field