Rigorous, highly-efficient optical tools for HCG-VCSEL design

High Contrast Gratings (HCG) have become a hot research topic, because of their new functionalities at very small volumes. However no efficient 3D VCSEL model capable to account for HCG has been reported so far. HCG design is therefore mainly based on 1D simulations. For realistic structures usually FDTD is the most popular approach, with its well known cumbersome computation drawbacks. VELM code,1 the well established VCSEL electromagnetic solver developed in the last ten years in the Torino group, has now been upgraded to rigorously handle HCG layers. The efficiency of the tool is preserved, and an entire set of HCG VCSEL modes can be computed in minutes on an ordinary desktop. A full set of design tools and guidelines, starting from 1D HCG properties up to 3D simulations which include HCG in the VCSEL design, will be presented and applied to the design of a structure that is in fabrication