Modal characteristics of ARROW-type vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Abstract

Antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW-type) vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers are designed for high-power single-mode operation. A detailed full-vector finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) study shows strong modal discrimination in favor of the fundamental mode for large aperture (>6 μm), large index-step (/spl Delta/n>0.025) simplified ARROW-type devices. The FDTD model identifies the polarization-dependent radiation losses of the higher order modes, which prevent them from reaching laser threshold.