Optical modeling of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are presently the subject of intense research due to their potential as compact, efficient, astigmatic laser sources for a number of important applications. Unfortunately, their complexity precludes optimization based solely upon empirical methods, and points instead to the need for better numerical models. Modeling the optical field in a vertical-cavity laser, however, is especially difficult due to both the high Q of the optical cavity and the distributed reflectivity of the mirrors. Our approach to this dilemma has been the development of modeling techniques on two complexity scales. We first derived an effective-index model that is numerically efficient and thus can be included together with carrier transport and thermal models to make up a self-consistent modeling package.