Abstract
Static and dynamic characteristics of weakly index-guided vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers in a multi-transverse-mode regime are analyzed by use of a model that takes into account the transverse modes supported by the waveguide and a consistent spectral gain including many-body effects. Waveguide effects are addressed by consideration of different refractive-index steps. We show that stronger competition between transverse modes occurs when their confinement in the waveguide is increased. Selection of a particular high-order transverse mode by use of azimuthal-dependent current profiling can be obtained over a wide current range. We study the alternate current modulation of two orthogonal high-order transverse modes, taking into account thermal effects. This current-induced spatial switching leads to good-quality high-frequency beam steering in the laser azimuthal direction when an appropriate current profile is considered according to the refractive-index step.
© 1999 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
C. Z. Ning and P. M. Goorjian
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 16(11) 2072-2082 (1999)
J. Dellunde, A. Valle, L. Pesquera, and K. A. Shore
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 16(11) 2131-2139 (1999)
Angel Valle and Luis Pesquera
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 19(7) 1549-1557 (2002)