Complex Waveguide Supermode Analysis of Coherently-Coupled Microcavity Laser Arrays

Coherently coupled microcavity lasers have desirable properties for emerging applications. We use 2-dimensional complex refractive index waveguide modeling of 2-element photonic crystal vertical cavity surface emitting laser arrays to analyze their supermodes. The complex modal effective indices are used in turn to calculate the complex coupling coefficient between the laser array elements. An analysis of the effects of array design parameters, such as photonic crystal period, fill-factor, or confinement, to engineer the coupling coefficient for the desired properties is given and example designs for 850 nm arrays are presented.

Automated summary

In this study, we analyzed the supermodes of 2-element photonic crystal vertical cavity surface emitting laser arrays using 2-dimensional complex refractive index waveguide modeling. The complex modal effective indices were then used to calculate the complex coupling coefficient between the laser array elements. We provided an analysis of the effects of array design parameters and presented example designs for 850 nm arrays.