FDTD calculations of the divergence angle of multi-mode VCSELs

Masamitsu Mochizuki, Tetsuo Nishida, Satoshi Kakinuma, Takeo Kaneko

VIE Project, Seiko Epson Corp., 281 Fujimi, Fujimi-machi, Suwa-gun, Nagano, Japan 399-0293

ABSTRACT

We describe and demonstrate a method of decreasing the divergence angle of multi-mode VCSELs, and show how we
can obtain a low and stable divergence angle. We first explain the relationship between the lateral wave-vectors of
resonant modes and the divergence angle. Then we attempt to optimize the oxide aperture and the electrode structure.
Here, we calculate the electro-magnetic field of the VCSELs by the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method
and the far-field pattern by combining the diffraction integral and the FDTD. Finally, we compare the theoretical and
experimental results of the divergence angle of the VCSELs.

Keywords: VCSEL, divergence angle, oxide aperture, electrode, FDTD

1. INTRODUCTION

Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) have received much attention in the field of optical communications.
This is because VCSELs have beneficial properties, such as high-speed modulation, low threshold current and low
fabrication cost. Some manufacturers have started mass production of VCSELs, and thus they are gradually being used
in local area networks (LAN) and storage area networks (SAN). However, some issues remain to be solved. One of the
main issues is the coupling loss of light emitted from the VCSEL into the fiber core. VCSELs, which generally emit
multi-transverse modes, are very useful when using multi-mode optical fibers. However, when TO-CAN packages and
OSA (Optical Sub-Assembly) housings, which are both cost-effective and widely used, are employed, it is necessary to
reduce the divergence angle owing to the limited magnification of the focusing lens and the accuracy of optical
alignment. Of course, this is easily achieved when we employ a single-mode VCSEL structure, but this gives rise to an
unstable convergence length to the Equilibrium Mode Distribution (EMD) of the multi-mode fiber. So, multi-mode but
low divergence VCSELs are desirable.

So far, many research results on the far field pattern (FFP) and the divergence angle of VCSELs have been reported [1-
7]; e.g. the small divergence angle of single mode VCSELs [1,2], far field pattern control of a single high-order
transverse mode[3], beam quality factor of VCSELs (degree of deviation from a Gaussian beam) [4], and so on.
However, most of these are experimental or theoretical results for specific modes and thus we are unable to obtain
useful information on how to reduce the divergence angle of multi-transverse-mode VCSELs. In this paper, we discus
the divergence angle of multi-mode oxide-confined 850nm VCSELs associated with the lateral resonance determined by
the total reflection condition.

2. DEVICE STRUCTURE and CALCULATION METHOD

2.1. Device Structure

A schematic of our VCSEL is shown in Fig.1. 37.5 pairs of n-type Al0.15Ga0.85As/Al0.9Ga0.1As bottom distributed Bragg
reflector (DBR) layers are stacked on a n-GaAs substrate, and the active region is sandwiched between this bottom DBR
mirror and 25 pairs of a top p-type DBR mirror (also employing Al0.15Ga0.85As/Al0.9Ga0.1As). The active region contains
three 8nm-thick GaAs quantum wells embedded in 8nm Al0.3Ga0.7As barriers sandwiched by graded-index separate-
confinement layers to form a 1λ vertical cavity. Actually, the first DBR layer above the active region contains a 30nm
thick AlxGa1-xAs (x>0.97) layer, which is selectively oxidized after mesa etching in order to achieve current

Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices XIII, edited by Marek Osinski, 201
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 confinement. The diameter of the mesa and the oxide aperture is about 25µm and 11.0 µm, respectively. The device
mesa structure is planarized by polyimide for metal electrode crossing.

Electrode Oxide aperture: diameter 11µm Oxide layer: thickness 30nm

p-DBR: 25pairs

polyimide
Confinement layer
Al0.15Ga0.85As
/Al0.9Ga0.1As 85.6nm
10o 20nm
4pair 8nm
8nm
n-DBR: 37.5pairs 3MQW
Al0.15Ga0.85As (GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As)
/Al0.9Ga0.1As

25µm
Fig. 1: Schematic of our VCSEL (vertical section)

2.2. Calculation Method

In this section, we introduce a method used for calculating the optical properties of our VCSELs.

First, we calculate the photonic band gap (PBG) of DBR using a 1-dimensional plane-wave expansion method (1D
PWM). Then we estimate the resonant frequency of the VCSELs, which is called the “defect mode” in the photonic
crystal field, by combining the super-cell technique with PWM.

We calculate the electro-magnetic field of the device by a 2-dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain method (2D
FDTD). The Berenger’s perfect matching layer (PML) is utilized at the end of the calculation area. Here, we excite the
active region with a Gaussian pulse at around the resonant frequency estimated above. The metal electrode is assumed
to be a perfect electric conductor, and the surrounding region is calculated by the sub-cell method. In this calculation,
we should transform the electro-magnetic field of the emitted light to the frequency region in order to calculate the Far
Field Pattern (FFP) by the diffraction integral. The electro-magnetic field in the far field region is described as follows,
E(r , ω ) = cos θ ∫ {− Z 0 (n′ × H (ω )) − (E(ω ) × n′) × r0}exp{ik (r ′ ⋅ r0 )}ds, (1)
c

H(r, ω ) = cos θ ∫ {(n′ × H (ω )) × r0 − (E(ω ) × n′) Z 0 }exp{ik (r ′ ⋅ r0 )}ds, (2)

c
where r is the position vector of a far field observation point, r0 is the unit
vector in the direction of r expressed as r0 = (cos θ , sin θ ) , ω is the angular
frequency of the electro-magnetic field, c is the closed line slightly above
the device, n′ is the outward unit vector normal to c, Z0 is the
characteristic impedance of free space, and k is the wavenumber (see
r
Fig.2). Of course, a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is available for this
calculation, but in this case, one would need to store the whole of the n
electro-magnetic field in the time domain, which would require a large c r0
amount of memory space. So we calculate the electro-magnetic field in the r'
necessary frequency region, which in fact is quite narrow in laser
calculations, employing a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT).

Fig. 2: Schematic of illustrating the far-field calculation

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 We also estimate the total number of lateral modes by using the effective
index method and the fiber mode approximation. The effective refractive Cladding Core Cladding
index of both the core and the cladding region, which are defined as in fig.3,
are individually calculated using the conventional equation (3),
E(z)
∫n (z ) E (z ) 2 dz
neff = , (3)
∫ E ( z ) 2
dz
where the electric filed distribution is calculated by 1D FDTD.

In this paper, we assume the refractive index of the oxidized layer is 1.6, the
polyimide region is 1.78, and that of the AlxGa1-xAs layer is given by the
following equation (4),
(
n( x ) = x 0.131E 2 − 0.194 E + 2.99 )
( )
(4) Oxide aperture
+ (1 − x ) 0.1625E 2 − 0.07629E + 3.386 , Fig. 3: The core and cladding region
where E is 1.239/λ, and λ is 0.85µm.

In the following section, we calculate the divergence angle and the transverse modes for various structures using these
methods and attempt to reduce the divergence angle of our VCSELs by optimizing the oxide aperture and the electrode
structure.

3. CALCULATION

3.1. Calculation of Representative Structure and Principle

In this section, we discuss the relationship between the divergence angle and the transverse mode through calculating
the VCSEL introduced in section 2.1.

Let us start with a band diagram analysis. Figure 4(a) shows the results obtained form calculating photonic band
structure of the DBR. Here, a is the thickness of the DBR, i.e. the lattice constant of 1-dimensional photonic crystal (1D
PhC), and c is the velocity of light. The solid lines seen in Fig. 4(a) are propagation modes of the DBR. We can see in
Fig. 4(a) that there are no propagation modes in the frequency region from 0.1458 c/a to 0.1599c/a. This is the PBG.
The thickness of each DBR layer is set to be 850nm/4n so that the resonant wavelength is about 850nm (a is set to be
129.981nm), and then the wavelength region corresponding to the PBG frequency is from 812.9 to 891.5nm (λ = c/f =
c/(f’c/a) = a/f’ = 129.981nm/0.1458 = 891.5nm). Figure 4(b) shows the band diagram of a VCSEL calculated by 1D
PWM using super-cell. We can see in Fig. 4(b) that a single defect mode appears in the PBG with a group velocity
(gradient) of zero. This means that this mode is a standing wave, and thus the resonant mode of the VCSEL
(longitudinal mode). The resonant frequency (wavelength) is 0.15264c/a (851.6nm).
0.30 0.170
0.25
Frequency [ c /a ]

0.20 0.160
Frequency [ c /a ]

PBG
0.15
0.150
0.10
0.05
0.140
0.00
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
0.130
Wave Vector [2π/a ]
Wave Vector
(a) Propagation mode of DBR (b) Resonant mode of VCSEL
Fig. 4: Band diagram of our VCSEL

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 It is also seen in Fig. 4(b) that the longitudinal resonant mode has various wave-vector elements. This is because the
defect mode is localized at an active region in real space, and thus spread in the spatial frequency region. But, in fact,
this localization is weak in the VCSEL owing to the relatively small refractive index difference between the active layer
and the DBR layers. Figure 5 shows a vertical cross-section of the electric field distribution. We can see in Fig. 5 that
the localization of the DBR is weak, and the electric field is gradually damped in the DBR with a period of 2a. In other
words, when we define the electro-magnetic field amplitude and the normal component of wave-vector in the VCSEL as
A( z ) and kz, these are written as follows,
A(z ) = A exp{i (ω t − k z z )} = A exp(− k zi z ) exp{− i (ω t − k zr z )}, (5)
k z = k zr − ik zi ,
k zr ≅ 2π 2a = π a , (6)
k zi > 0,
where kzr represents the real part and kzi represents the imaginary part. (In this paper, X refers to the major elements of
X.)
2.0 13 2.0 2a 13

Relative Dielectric Constant

Relative Dielectric Constant

1.5 11 1.5 11
Amplitude [a.u.]

Amplitude [a.u.]
1.0 9 1.0 9

0.5 7 0.5 7

0.0 5 0.0 5

-0.5 3 -0.5 3

-1.0 1 -1.0 1
1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 32 36 40 44 48 52
z [a ] z [a ]

(a) Electric field distribution (b) Magnified electric field distribution

Fig. 5: Electric field distribution (vertical cross-section)
Defining the size of wave-vector in free space as k0, that in the VCSEL as k, and the lateral component of the wave-
vector as k//, we can obtain,
2
 2 nπ 
2
 2n1n2 
k // ≅ k 2 − k z2 =   − k z2 ≅ k 0 n 2 −   ,

(7)
 λ   1 + n2 
n
where n is the effective refractive index of individual modes in the VCSEL and
k = nk 0 = 2nπ λ = k //2 + k z2 ,
a = λ 4n1 + λ 4n2 .
When we compare eqs. (6) and (7), we find that k// is rather small compared to kz (n is close to n1 and n2). Thus, the
divergence angle of the VCSEL, which seems small because it is determined by the ratio of k// to k0z (the normal
component of k0), is given by
θ = tan −1 (k k ) = tan −1  k k 2 − k 2  ≅ tan −1 (k k ),
0 // 0z // 0 //
(8)
// 0
 

where k 0 // = k // and k 0 z = k 02 − k //2 ≅ k0 (rough approximation). But in actual fact, k// is small enough for its value to
be changed without affecting eq. (6), which restricts kzr, and thus the divergence angle can easily be increased following
eq. (8). (For instance, when we assume the aperture length to be 13µm and a = 130nm, kzr is about 100 times grater than
k// of the fundamental mode, and thus k// is quite small compared with kzr. However, the divergence angle for k//=π/130,
2π/130, … etc. is 4deg, 8deg, …etc., and easily increases, although this approximation is somewhat rough.) In the
identical mode, k// is mainly determined by the diameter of the resonant cavity, that is, the aperture diameter d, which
should be in inverse proportional to k//. So, the divergence angle of the individual mode calculated by 2D FDTD and the

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 diffraction integral should fit the equation
θ = tan −1 ( A d ) . Figure 6 shows the calculated 25

Divergence Angle [deg.]

results of the divergence angle and the curve 20
0t h (FDT D)
fitted to each mode as functions of the aperture
diameter. Here, the divergence angle is defined 15 1st (FDT D)
as the angle that includes 95.4% of the total 10 0t h (fit ting)
integrated light intensity, which correspond to 1st (fitt ing)
the 1/e2 level of a Gaussian Beam. As can be 5
seen in Fig. 6, the above equation is good fit for 0
the divergence angle. However, we should note 5 7 9 11 13 15 17
that the total divergence angle does not always
decrease as the diameter of the oxide aperture Oxide Aperture Diamet er [ µm]
increases, because a resonant cavity with large
Fig. 6: Divergence angle of the VCSEL
diameter has additional higher-order transverse
modes with larger k// compared to lower-order modes. The size of k// is limited by the total reflection condition
determined by the effective refractive index difference between the core and cladding regions (see Fig. 7). As the
oxidized aperture diameter is large enough and it does not affect the electric field distribution in the vertical cross-
section, the effective refractive index, accordingly the total reflection condition for lateral resonance and the limit for the
size of k//, cannot change. Briefly, the maximum divergence angle is not changed fundamentally by the aperture
diameter. So, we should reduce the effective refractive index difference in order to decrease the divergence angle of the
VCSEL.
cannot resonate

(a) Small index difference (b) Large index difference

Fig.7: The size of k// is limited by the total reflection. (a) Small effective index (b) Large effective index
(a) The refractive index difference between the core Fig.8: The angle of refraction at the surface is decreased
and cladding region is small. Transverse modes with by reducing the effective refractive index of the resonant
large k// cannot resonate because it does not satisfy the modes. (a) The effective refractive index of the resonant
total reflection condition. (b) The refractive index modes is small. (b) The effective refractive index of the
difference is large. Transverse modes with larger k// resonant modes is large. The size of k0z becomes small,
can resonate, which give rise to a large divergence. which affects the angle of refraction at the surface.
In actual fact, the approximation k 0 z ≅ k 0 used to introduce eq. (8) is rather rough, and k0z should be expressed as
follows.
( )
k0 z = k 02 − k //2 = k 02 − n 2 k 02 − k z2 ≅ π (1 a ) − n 2 − 1 ⋅ (2 λ ) .
2
( ) (9)
This equation means that we can decrease the angle of refraction at the surface by reducing the effective refractive index
of the resonant modes (see Fig. 8). So, this is also significant in order to reduce the divergence angle.

Therefore, we can predict that the divergence angle of VCSELs can be decreased by the following method; [1] reducing
the effective refractive index of the resonant modes and [2] reducing the effective refractive index difference between
the core and cladding regions. In the following section, we attempt to realize these conditions by tuning the confinement
structure and the oxide layer thickness.

3.2. Confinement Structure and Divergence Angle

In this section, we attempt to reduce the refractive index of the confinement layers in order to reduce the divergence
angle. The reduction of the confinement index also seems to reduce the effective refractive index difference between the
core and cladding, because the influence of the low index oxide layer seems to be weak. We employ an alternative
confinement layer, the effective index of which is about 3% smaller than that of the original VCSEL.

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 First, we calculate the divergence angle of each
mode in the same way as section 3.1. The 25

Divergence Angle [deg.]

calculated results are shown in Fig. 9. The solid 20
lines show the divergence angle of VCSELs 0th (low index)
with the alternative low-index confinement, and 15 1st (low index)
the dashed lines show those of original VCSEL 10 0th mode
(same as Fig. 6). We can see in Fig. 9 that the
1st mode
divergence angles of VCSELs are slightly 5
decreased by introducing the reduced-index
0
confinement layers. Therefore, the divergence
5 7 9 11 13 15 17
angle of VCSELs can be reduced by using this
method if the total reflection condition is Oxide Aperture Diameter [ µm]
equivalent for each type of confinement.
Fig. 9: Divergence angle of low-index confinement VCSEL
Next, we calculate the effective refractive index of the core and cladding regions for each type of VCSEL using eq. (3).
The results are shown in table 1. We can see in table 1 that the refractive index difference between the core and cladding
regions increases rather, against our expectation. This is because the rate at which electro-magnetic field seeps out of the
active layer into the oxide layer increases owing to the reduced refractive index difference between the confinement and
oxide layers. Figure 10 shows the resonant modes of VCSELs with original confinement and low-index confinement
with respect to the aperture diameter calculated by fiber mode approximation. The solid lines show the resonant modes
of VCSEL with low-index confinement, and the dashed lines show those of original VCSEL. We can see in Fig. 10 that
the number of resonant modes for the same diameter can increase when we employ the low refractive index
confinement layers (e.g. diameter of 2µm in Fig. 10). As long as we refer to the same mode, the divergence angle is
slightly smaller (Fig. 9), and thus we can obtain low divergence VCSELs when we tune the aperture diameter so that an
additional mode cannot exist (e.g. diameter of 3µm in Fig. 7). However, this is not the fundamental solution mentioned
in section 3.1, because we cannot select such diameters as the resonant modes increase.

Table 1: Effective refractive index of VCSELs with different confinement

Core region Cladding region Refractive index
Confinement type
refractive index refractive index difference
Original 3.2777 3.2919 0.0141
Low refractive index 3.2567 3.2737 0.0170

3.292
3.273
3.271 3.290
3.269 3.288
3.267 3.286 Low-index
x=0.3-0.9 confinement
β /k

3.265
3.284 Original
x=0.3-0.6 confinement
3.263
3.282
3.261
3.259 3.280
3.257 3.278
0 1 2 3 4 5
Oxide Appetture Diameter [µm]

Fig. 10: Resonant mode of VCSELs

In this section, we have tried to decrease the divergence angle of VCSELs by reducing the refractive index of the
confinement layers, but we have not accomplished this fundamentally. However, we found that the effective refractive
index is not the most significant parameter for obtaining low divergence VCSELs. So, in the following section, we
attempt to reduce the resonant modes of VCSELs in a more aggressive way.

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 3.3. Oxide Layer Thickness
In the previous section, we found that the divergence angle of each mode does not change much when we tune the
effective refractive index. On the other hand, the number of resonant modes changes drastically as the refractive index
difference between the core and cladding changes. In other words, we should suppress the total reflection for lateral
resonance without considering refraction at the surface
of the VCSEL. In this section, we reduce the thickness of 25

Divergence Angle [deg.]

the oxide layer in order to restrict the total reflection,
20
although the divergence angle of each mode increases
slightly. 15 0th mode
10 1st mode
We first calculate the divergence angle of a VCSEL with
respect to the thickness of the oxide layer in order to 5
confirm that the divergence angle of each mode does not 0
increase very much. The diameter of the oxide aperture 2 10 18 26 34 42 50
is fixed at 11.0µm in this calculation. The calculated
Oxide Layer T hickness [nm]
results are shown in Fig. 11. As shown in Fig. 11, the
divergence angle of each mode hardly increases as we Fig. 11: Divergence angle of VCSELs
expected. associated with oxide layer thickness
Encouraged by this result, we calculated the effective refractive index of the VCSEL as a function of the thickness of
the oxide layer thickness. The refractive index of the confinement layers is the same as section 3.1. The calculated
results are shown in Fig. 12. The curved line shows the refractive index of the cladding region, and the horizontal lines
represent the effective refractive indices of corresponding modes which start resonating when we choose the diameter of
oxidized aperture at 11.0µm. In short, the horizontal lines above the curved line can resonate. For example, the LP01,
LP11, LP21, and LP02 modes can resonate when we set the thickness of the oxide layer to 12nm. We can see in Fig. 12
that the total number of resonant modes decreases drastically as the oxide layer thickness is reduced. This is because the
lateral wave-vector of higher-order modes is too large to satisfy the total reflection condition for resonance. It is also
seen in Fig. 12 that the number of total resonant
modes is stable at around 12nm, 16nm and so neff
on. This stable region is useful when fabricating 3.292 LP01
device, because differences in the diameter due Resonant
Effective Reflactive Index

LP11
to variations in the fabrication process can LP21
move the horizontal lines slightly. However, it 3.290
is not always necessary to select this region. LP02
Because, the effective refractive index LP31
difference, which determine the total refraction 3.288
LP12
condition, is not changed by the aperture LP41
diameter. In other words, the curved line in Fig.
3.286 LP22
12 defines the maximum divergence angle and
cannot be moved by fabrication varieties in the 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 LP03
diameter. So, even if another mode happens to Oxide Layer T hickness [nm] LP51
resonate owing to variations in the fabrication
process, the maximum divergence angle of the Fig. 12: Effective refractive index and resonant modes LP04
device is still kept narrow.

3.4. Electrode Structure

In the previous section, we have found that we can obtain low and stable divergence VCSELs by tuning the oxide layer
thickness. But, the divergence angle can be further narrowed, when we suppress the modes above the curved line in Fig.
12. (In some sense, the curved line also suppresses the horizontal lines drawn below.) Some of these modes cannot
reach resonance so long as the gain cannot overcome the internal losses such as absorption losses by free carriers at the
metal electrode, transmission losses of the DBR and so on. In this section, we try to optimize the electrode structure in
order to obtain further low divergence VCSELs.

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 When we introduce absorption losses by the metal electrode, we should put it above the cladding region, because the
light of lower-order modes is more confined to the central region compared with higher-order modes. So, it is best to
introduce an electrode with a small aperture diameter at the center. Then, we investigate how small an aperture we are
able to introduce without affecting the FFP of the VCSEL.

First, we calculate the FFP of VCSELs by 2D FDTD

and the diffraction integral. The thickness of the metal
electrode is assumed to be about 130nm (equal to one 1.0
pair of DBRs) and the diameter of the oxide aperture is

Normalized Intensity
0.8
set to be 11.0µm in this calculation. Figure 13 shows
the calculated FFP of the 1st order mode of a VCSEL 0.6 R=8.0um
with the electrode aperture diameter of 8.0µm and 0.4
R=13.0um
11.0µm. As can be seen in Fig. 13, sub-peaks exist near
the main peak and the intensity of these peaks become 0.2
large when we introduce an electrode with small 0.0
aperture diameter. Figure 14 is the calculated
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
divergence angle of the VCSEL with respect to the
electrode aperture diameter. The horizontal lines show Angle [deg.]
the original divergence angle without a metal electrode. Fig. 13: Far field patterns of VCSELs
We can see in Fig. 14 that the divergence angle of each with different electrode aperture diameters
mode becomes extremely large when the diameter of
the metal electrode is smaller than that of the oxide aperture. Next, we investigate the electric field distribution in order
to clarify the reason for wide divergence. The calculated electric field distribution is shown in Fig. 15. We can see in
Fig. 15 that the electric field is concentrated at the edge of the electrode when the aperture diameter is smaller than
oxide aperture. This localized element of the optical field spreads out in all directions like an optical point source. This
is because the localized electric field has all wavenumber (spatial frequency) elements in a similar way to that in which
an impulse wave has all frequency elements. As a result, the total divergence angle of the device becomes extremely
large. This localization become notable when we introduce a metal electrode under relatively large electric field of the
core region. So, we should not introduce a metal electrode inside the core region. Therefore, the diameter of the metal
electrode should be set equal to the oxide aperture in order to introduce absorption losses without sacrificing FFP.
Electrode
25
Oxide Aperture Diameter 16.0
Divergence Angle [deg.]

12.0
20
0th mode 8.0
Amplitude [a.u.]

15 1st mode 4.0

10 0th(no electrode) Ex(R=8.0um)
0.0
1st(no electrode) Ex(R=13.0um)
5 -4.0

0 -8.0
5 7 9 11 13 15 17 -12.0
Electrode Diamet er [µm] -16.0
x
Fig. 14: Divergence angle of VCSELs
Fig. 15: Electric field distribution
with respect to electrode aperture diameter

4. EXPERIMENT

Having found a method for decreasing the divergence angle, we fabricated VCSELs with the structure mentioned above.

First, we tried to verify the effect of the confinement layer structure on the divergence angle. We employed 2 kinds of
composition for n-type confinement layer, Al0.3→0.6Ga0.7→0.4As and Al0.3→0.9Ga0.7→0.1As, where Xy→z means that the
component of X linearly alters from Xy to Xz. The composition for p-type confinement layer is both Al0.3→0.6Ga0.7→0.4As.

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 Vertical cross-sections of the Al component for these VCSELs are shown in Fig. 16. Between the p-type confinement
layer and the oxide layer is an Al0.6Ga0.7As layer. Figure 17 shows the experimental results of the divergence angle. We
can see in Fig. 17 that the divergence angle of the (b) type VCSELs is slightly narrower compared with (a). This is
because the rate at which the electro-magnetic field seeped into the oxidized layer is similar in both VCSELs and the
effective refractive index of (b) is slightly smaller compared with (a). Therefore, we have confirmed the effect of the
effective refractive index on the divergence angle.
45

Divergence Angle (vertical) [deg.]

Confinement layer
Al
0.9 0.97~ 0.9 0.97~ 35
1λ Cavity
0.6 0.6 0.6
0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 25
n-DBR p-DBR
(a)
z
(a) Both Al0.3→0.6Ga0.7→0.4As (b) n-type is Al0.3→0.9Ga0.7→0.1As (b)
15
Fig. 16: Amount of Al in vertical cross-sections 15 25 35 45
Divergence Angle (horizontal) [deg.]

Fig. 17: Divergence Angle of VCSELs

with different Confinement compositions
Secondly, in order to clarify the effect of the electrode diameter on the divergence angle, we fabricated VCSELs with
different electrode aperture diameters, (i) 13µm, (ii) 15µm and (iii) 17µm. The diameter of oxide aperture ro was about
15 µm. Measurements of the FFP are shown in Fig. 18. As can be seen in Fig. 18, the divergence angle of VCSELs at
the FWHM gradually decreases, as the electrode diameter re is reduced. However, there is a sub-peak in the FFP of (i),
and the divergence angle at the 1/e2 level is rather wide compared with the other result. We think this is because the
higher-order modes can be suppressed by absorption loss at the electrode, although the electric field concentration at the
edge of the metal electrode should cause a sub-peak in the FFP.

1.0 1.0 1.0

Normarized Intensity
Normarized Intensity

Normarized Intensity

0.8 0.8 0.8

0.6 20.5o 24.6o

0.6Horizontal 25.4o
0.6Horizontal Horizontal
Vertical Vertical Vertical
0.4 0.4 0.4

0.2 32.4o 0.2 30.1o 0.2 29.7o

0.0 0.0 0.0

-40 -20 0 20 40 -40 -20 0 20 40 -40 -20 0 20 40

Angle [deg.] Angle [deg.] Angle [deg.]

(i) re=13.0µm < ro=15.0µm (ii) re= ro=15.0µm (iii) re= 17.0µm > ro=15.0µm
Fig. 18: Far field patterns of VCSELs with different electrode diameters
Finally, we fabricated the most promising VCSELs with a thin oxide layer. The thickness of this layer was 15nm, and
the diameter of both the electrode and the oxide aperture was about 11µm. The composition of the p- and n-type
confinement layers were Al0.3→0.6Ga0.7→0.4As and Al0.3→0.9Ga0.7→0.1As, respectively. The experimental results of the
divergence angles of VCSELs with 15 and 30nm thick oxide layers are shown in Fig. 19. We can see in Fig. 19 that the
divergence angle of VCSELs with a thin oxide layer is quite narrow compared with VCSELs with a 30nm thick oxide
layer and that a maximum divergence angle of less than 26 degrees is achieved. We think this characteristic is quite
important for optical alignment.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 5722 209

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 40

Divergence Angle (vertical) [deg.]

30

20
15nm
30nm
10
10 20 30 40
Divergence Angle (horizontal) [deg.]
Fig. 19: Divergence angle of VCSELs with thin
oxidized layer compared with original VCSELs

5. CONCLUSION

In this paper, we have presented a principle and methods for decreasing the divergence angle of VCSELs. First, we
found that [1] reducing the effective refractive index of the resonant modes in order to reduce the normal component of
the wave-vector in free space and [2] reducing the effective refractive index difference between the core and cladding
regions for limiting resonant modes with large lateral wave-vectors are significant in order to achieve a low divergence
angle. Secondly, we investigated theoretically the influence of both methods by tuning the refractive index of the
confinement layers and found that [2] is more important. Therefore, we tried to reduce the thickness of the oxide layer
in order to restrict the total reflection for lateral resonance and found that resonant modes with large transverse wave-
vectors can be drastically reduced. We also investigated the influence of the electrode on the divergence angle and
found that the concentration of the electro-magnetic field at the edge of the metal electrode can cause sub-peaks in the
FFP and affect the divergence angle when the diameter of the electrode was set to be smaller than that of oxide aperture.
So, when we consider the suppression of higher-order modes by absorption by the metal electrode, we should set the
diameter of the metal electrode equal to the oxide aperture. Finally, we confirmed experimentally how the effective
refractive index of the confinement layers and the diameter of the metal electrode influence the divergence angle, and
fabricated VCSELs with a thin oxide layer and ideal electrode diameter. As a result, we have obtained a low divergence
angle less than 26 degrees experimentally.

6. REFERENCE

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