Mastering Lateral Radiation Losses in Tunable VCSELs

This paper deals with the loss mechanisms in tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The strong increase of the threshold gain at the tuning range edges motivates the investigation of the degradation mechanisms presented in this paper. A campaign of simulations performed with our in-house VCSEL ELectroMagnetic (VELM) simulation code, combined with a novel approach based on the study of the Poynting vector, allowed to identify significant lateral radiation losses. The proposal of technology-affordable countermeasures rests on the proper understanding of these phenomena.