Toshihiko BABA,¹ Tomonobu KONDOH,¹ Fumio KOYAMA² and Kenichi IGA²

¹Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Yokohama National University, 156 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, 240 Japan, ²Precision and Intelligence Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226 Japan

(Received November 18, 1994; Accepted December 27, 1994)

We numerically analyzed the thermal characteristic in continuous wave (cw) GaInAsP/InP surface emitting lasers with dielectric multilayer mirrors by using finite element method. From the simulation of temperature distribution in cw devices, we found that MgO/Si multilayer mirror which has a high thermal conductivity is effective for heat sinking; the thermal resistance of device using MgO/Si mirror is nearly half of that using SiO₂/Si one, almost independently of their thicknesses. It was also indicated that the optimum design for other structural parameters, especially the thickness of active region, is important to effectively suppress the temperature increase. The minimum threshold current was estimated to be 3 mA under cw condition for the active region diameter of 4 μm and thickness of 0.5 μm.

Key words : surface emitting laser, GaInAsP/InP, thermal resistance, finite element method, MgO/Si, SiO₂/Si