Optical and Thermal Performance Simulation of VCSEL with Defect Type Based Photonic Crystal microcavity

Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) based on photonic crystal (PhC) microcavities can take advantage of the mode control ability to adjust the laser output mode. In this study, two types of microcavity patterns are designed. The mode field distribution, Q factor, mode characteristics and thermal effects affected by different microcavities are discussed, followed by an analysis of the Q factor and electric field distribution of microcavities with different transition hole sizes under the same pattern. The results show that the special array configuration of the air holes has a significant impact on adjusting the laser output mode, which attributed not only to the improvement of the optical field distribution but also to the improvement of heat dissipation. The side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of the GaAs based morning glory photonic crystal (MG-PhC) microcavity is approximately 27 dB, which is close to the single mode operation. The micro-cavity has a great electric field distribution at λ=1.078 µm, the Q factor is about 1.1×10
⁶
.