A vectorial model for transverse mode selection in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Abstract

Due to their large Fresnel number, broad-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) show a strong tendency for emission with a very complex spatial and spectral structure . On the one hand side the resulting reduction in spatial and temporal coherence is detrimental for applications and hence a thorough understanding of these instabilities is sought for. On the other hand, these phenomena make VCSELs very interesting for studying spatial self-organization in quasi two-dimensional laser systems. The model incorporates also the vectorial degrees of freedom of the active quantum well medium as well as of the light field. This is motivated by the intriguing experimental results.