Influence of anisotropies on transverse modes in oxide-confined VCSELs

We present a comprehensive fully vectorial model for the cavity eigenmodes of oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with the details of their complex structure. It includes device-inherent symmetry-breaking mechanisms like noncircular geometries and material anisotropies related to the elasto-optic and electro-optic effect. The latter is accounted for in the model starting from the material and doping profiles. We compare these theoretical results with experimental findings of spectrally and polarization-resolved transverse mode nearfields of oxide-confined VCSELs with two different aperture diameters. Within a parametric study of the influence of aperture anisotropies, we are able to calculate frequencies and gains of all transverse mode families, their polarization dependence and their spatial mode profiles which are in good agreement with the experimental findings.