Excitation of TEnelectromagnetic waves with a high transverse index and dependence of the threshold and efficiency of laser diodes on the order of excited mode

Abstract

The conditions for the excitation of high-order TEn waves in an injection laser with a Fabry–Perot resonator are analyzed theoretically allowing for the dependence of the reflection coefficients of the resonator mirrors on the electromagnetic field configuration in a three-layer waveguide. Analytic expressions are obtained for the threshold current density and differential efficiency of laser diodes as a function of the waveguide structure parameters and of the transverse index n of the excited TEn wave. It is shown that, for certain properties of the waveguide structure, the minimum threshold corresponds to waves with n > 0. The maximum differential efficiency of injection lasers corresponds to the dominant mode TE0.