Abstract

Vacuum-electromagnetic-field modes in microcavities are redistributed and renormalized, and hence the pattern and the rates of the spontaneous emission are modified. Consequently, the conventional technique for calculating cavity spontaneous- emission power based on the scalar (isotropic) energy mode density formalism is not applicable to vertical-cavity lasers (VCLs). A comprehensive model for spontaneous emission from three-dimensional dielectric microcavities is dearly needed. Such a model must account for radiation intensity along both axial and lateral emission directions. The utility of such a model is greatly enhanced if it is primarily analytical in its formalism and can quantitatively predict the measured intensities. This paper presents the development of the above prescribed model and compares its predictions to the experimental data from air-post index-guided VCLs, for which both axial and lateral spontaneous-emission intensities can be readily measured.

© 1995 Optical Society of America