Second-harmonic distortion in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with lateral loss effects

The influence of lateral loss effects on the second-harmonic distortion (SHD) of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers is investigated theoretically. Two parameters, differential confinement factor and differential cavity loss, are defined for the consideration of self-focusing and diffraction loss. It is found that SHD increases at low modulation frequencies due to the presence of differential cavity loss, especially for lasers with small core radius.