Analysis of mode stability in a concave mirror vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with an oxide aperture

We applied the Fox-Li resonator theory to analyze the mode stability of concave mirror surface-emitting lasers. The numerical modeling incorporates the oxide aperture in the simple classical cavity by adding a non-uniform phase shifting layer to the flat mirror side. The calculation shows that there is a modal loss difference between the fundamental mode and the competing modes. The amount of loss difference depends upon cavity length and the thickness of the oxide aperture. In addition to loss difference, modal gain difference plays a key role in discriminating between the fundamental mode and the higher order transverse modes. The modal gain difference heavily depends upon the size of the oxide aperture and the field intensity distribution. To summarize, the geometry of the concave cavity affects the mode profile and the unique field profile of each transverse mode makes a difference in both modal loss and gain. Finally, this leads to a side-mode suppression.