Optimal Designs of Telecommunications Oriented Photonic-Crystal VCSELs

Abstract

Photonic-crystal (PhC) structures can provide efficient confinement for Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs). PhC is especially appropriate for VCSELs based on phosphide or nitride materials, which suffer from the lack of efficient optical confinement by oxide apertures. We present an overview of our optimization work on telecommunication-oriented PhC - VCSELs, which has been carried out on the base of three- dimensional, full vectorial Plane Wave Admittance Method combined with thermal, electrical and gain solver. We perform an exhaustive analysis of a broad range of the photonic-crystal parameters such as hole etching depth, distance between the holes and their diameters looking for the largest modal gain as well as the most efficient mode discrimination. As a result we determine the optimal VCSEL structure assuring high beam quality. Furthermore, the optimization of current injection is performed assuring reduction of threshold current and/or single mode operation.