Bloch analysis of photonic lattices that incorporate vertical cavity surface-emitting laser arrays

We analyzed one-dimensional photonic lattices that incorporate mirror-modul ated vertical cavity surface-emitting laser arrays utilizing the Bloch form alism. First, infinitely long arrays are considered. The in-phase mode (wit h a main central lobe at the far field) and antiphase mode (with two main s ymmetrically-located lobes at the far-field) are examined. A comparison of the modal losses of the m-phase and the antiphase modes, resulted in the di scovery of regimes in which the in-phase mode is dominant. Considering latt ices of finite length, we compared the results of the Bloch model to the ex act solutions. It is shown that the boundary conditions in these lattices s elect a specific mode from the continuous spectrum in the infinite case. Co nsequently, the lattice's length affects the eigenmodes and the correspondi ng eigenvalues in a periodic manner. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.