Supermodes of hermite tapered arrays of vertical-cavity semiconductor lasers

Two-dimensional arrays of vertical-cavity semiconductor lasers were prepare d by mirror patterning, The size of the laser elements of the array as tape red according to the Hermite polynomial zeros, in order to achieve a multil obed far-field pattern, e,g,, for applications as an array illuminator. Inj ecting short current pulses (similar to 100 ns) to the N x M Hermite tapere d vertical-cavity semiconductor laser array resulted in the lasing of anti- phase supermodes, similar to supermodes of uniform; size but (N + 2) x (N 2) laser arrays, Excitation by a long pulse resulted in a supermode locali zed on the larger elements of the array-exhibiting the desired multilobed f ar-field intensity pattern.