Fully coupled electrical and optical simulation of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

The two-dimensional quantum well laser simulator MINILASE has been extended in several ways. First, the underlying device equations have been modified to accommodate the cylindrical geometry of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). Second, an accurate band structure using the well-known k · p method, altered to include various external potentials, has been added in a fully self-consistent manner. The k · p method also yields the envelope functions within the quantum well which are used to compute the optical coupling strengths between electrons and holes in various subbands. It is shown that inclusion of an accurate bandstructure is important for obtaining correct laser output characteristics such as the modulation response. Finally, a fast new Green's function based optical solver (VMS) has been included self-consistently within MINILASE. The speed of VMS allows for direct inclusion within a Newton-Raphson iteration scheme that is performed very frequently during the simulation. VMS takes as input the change in the dielectric function computed within MINILASE and returns the optical recombination rates and net modal gain as outputs. The theory underlying VMS is presented as well as a detailed description of its coupling with MINILASE. To this end, a (quasi) photon rate equation that describes the dynamic behavior of the optical modes is derived. Finally, results related to the comprehensive coupling scheme are presented. For example, it is shown that the benefits of a tapered oxide aperture postulated to reduce threshold are negligible. Also demonstrated are the detrimental effects of spatial hole burning (an effect of minimal importance in traditional edge-emitting lasers) and vertical carrier leakage on the small signal response.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Oyafuso, Fabiano A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hess, Karl

• Laser
• vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs)
• quantum well laser simulator
• MINILASE

Statement dc:rights

• ©2001 Fabiano A. Oyafuso

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

4377353

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/31322