MICROCAVITY VACUUM-FIELD CONFIGURATION AND THE SPONTANEOUS EMISSION POWER

The axial and lateral spontaneous emission intensities from vertical-c avity laser diodes have been studied both experimentally and theoretic ally. The measurements show that spontaneous emission from the cavity perimeter (lateral emission) is overwhelmingly larger than the same em anating along the lasing direction (axial emission). A model for later al and axial spontaneous emission from microcavities is postulated bas ed on one- and two-dimensional vacuum electromagnetic field confinemen t, respectively. A new cavity mode counting technique is developed and utilized to calculate the spontaneous emission initio. The resulting field configuration theory is in good agreement with the emission inte nsity measurements.