Lattice Temperature Model and Temperature Effects in Oxide-Confined VCSEL’s

Abstract

A lattice temperature model is derived for oxide-confined vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) based on carrier transport and the conservation of energy. Peltier heat is caused by the bandedge and quasi-Fermi level discontinuities at a heterojunction. However, considering the device size, Peltier heat needs to be distributed and is not just generated at the interface, otherwise, an anomolous spike in temperature will occur. We have developed a novel treatment to model the Peltier heat at a heterojunction by use of a Monte Carlo simulation. Peltier heat is found to be a major heat contributor, and it results in a rapid and high temperature rise in the separate confinement heterostructure (SCH) region of the laser diode. We have also shown that the carrier thermal conductivities for materials with high mobilities must be included at high carrier densities because they contribute to additional spreading of the thermal energy. Subsequently, this lattice temperature model is coupled self-consistently to electronic and optical solvers to form a complete simulator for VCSELs. Self-heating causes a fast temperature rise when the VCSEL is operated under continuous wave conditions, causing resonant wavelength changes and an eventual thermal rollover. The resonant wavelength shift has been shown to be caused mainly by the heating of the distributed Bragg reflectors even though the peak temperature occurs within the SCH region. Possible physical factors causing the thermal rollover have also been examined with our complete simulator. The Auger recombination process is found to be one of the main factors causing the thermal rollover in 980 nm oxide-confined VCSELs while the photon lifetime is a factor in determining the position of the thermal rollover. We have also achieved a very good match between our simulated results and experimental data.