Optical phenomena in semiconductor laser devices modeled with the help of vectorial and scalar models

Optical fields within cavities of telecommunication GaAs-based 1300-nm oxide-confined edge-emitting and vertical-cavity surface-emitting diode lasers are analyzed treating the InGaAsN/GaAs quantum-well laser as a typical example. Both optical scalar and vectorial models are applied to simulate the devices operations. The scalar methods are represented by the Effective Index and the Effective Frequency Method while the vectorial one by the Method of Lines. An influence on an exactness of simplified scalar approaches of some structure details (e.g. widths or diameters of oxide apertures as well as their thicknesses and positions) is analyzed. The analysis is concluded with the determination of the conditions ensuring the satisfactorily close results of both scalar an vectorial models, so enabling justified applications of the much simpler former ones.