Cz. Ning et Jv. Moloney, THERMAL EFFECTS ON THE THRESHOLD OF VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASERS - FIRST-ORDER AND 2ND-ORDER PHASE-TRANSITIONS, Optics letters, 20(10), 1995, pp. 1151-1153
We investigate the threshold behavior of vertical-cavity surface-emitt
ing lasers (VCSEL's) by solving the set of coupled equations for carri
er density, field amplitude, and plasma and lattice temperatures. We s
how that, because of plasma heating and lattice heating, the threshold
of VCSEL's can be continuous or discontinuous with bistability betwee
n lasing and nonlasing states (correspondingly second- or first-order
phase transition), depending on the relative position of the cavity fr
equency to the gain bandwidth and on the ambient (substrate) temperatu
re of the device.