Dynamic behavior of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

A quasi-three-dimensional dynamic model of index-guided vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers is developed. Detailed structure of Bragg reflectors and lateral optical confinement are considered into the model. A three-dimensional waveguide problem is reduced to one dimension by using the effective-index method. The dynamic response of optical field is solved by the time-domain algorithm. In addition, the lateral variation of carrier concentration, refractive index, and spontaneous-emission profile are also determined in a self consistent manner. Using this model, the influence of carrier transport and hot carriers on the dynamic behavior of vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers is studied. It is found that these nonlinearities have significant influence on the relaxation-oscillation frequency and modulation bandwidth of the devices.