J. Piprek et al., MODELING THERMAL EFFECTS ON THE LIGHT VS CURRENT CHARACTERISTIC OF GAIN-GUIDED VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASERS, IEEE photonics technology letters, 6(2), 1994, pp. 139-142
Heating effects on the light power vs current characteristic of planar
top-emitting vertical-cavity laser diodes analyzed by thermal, optica
l and electrical modeling. The two-dimensional finite element thermal-
electrical simulation considers the spatial current funneling in the t
op p-doped distributed Bragg reflector and a current density dependent
resistivity of the hetero-barrier. Layered regions are described by a
nisotropic material parameters. Non-uniform refractive index temperatu
re coefficients of the semiconductor materials are applied in the vert
ical optical modeling. The strongly inhomogeneous temperature distribu
tion causes thermal increases of emission wavelength and reflectivity
as well as decreases of threshold gain and external quantum efficiency
with rising current. Finally, the calculated maximum light power is f
ound to be decisively affected by the temperature coefficients of the
refractive indices,