Analysis of microcavity VCSEL lasing modes using a full-vector weighted index method

Presents a semi-analytic full-vector method for calculating the spatial profile, optical confinement factor resonant frequency, absorption loss, and mirror loss of lasing modes in cylindrically symmetric microcavity vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL's). It can be shown that this method gives the best separable approximation for the electric and magnetic vector potentials. Our technique can model the entire VCSEL structure and can treat complex media. We apply the method to etched-post and oxide-apertured VCSEL's designed for 980-nm emission and find a blueshift in cavity resonance as the cavity radius shrinks. We also find a minimum optical cavity radius below which radially bound lasing modes cannot be supported. This radius depends on the device geometry and lies between 0.5 and 1 /spl mu/m for the devices studied. Once this model is augmented to include diffraction losses-the dominant loss mechanism for conventional small aperture lasers-it will provide a complete picture of lasing eigenmodes in microcavity VCSEL's.