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Numerical analysis of injected current effects on thermal characteristics of vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

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Abstract

The present study aims to numerically investigate thermal characteristics of the Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) considering current flows, non-radiative recombination, spontaneous emission transfer, and heat generation. The finite-volume method is used for discretizing the governing equations, and the comparison between prediction and measurement is made to evaluate the simulation code developed in this study. From literature, the numerical models are established for resistive heating inside Bragg reflector and contacts, non-radiative recombination between electrons and holes in the active region, and absorptive heating of created photons, and spontaneous emission. It is found that the numerical prediction shows good agreement with experimental data of temperature rise, and local heating exists mainly near the active layer of VCSEL during operation. Near the active region, thermal sources and temperature increase with injected current, whereas the electrical potential is mainly distributed in the active and p-mirror regions. Also, the maximum temperature rise appears in the active region owing to non-radiative recombination and reabsorption of spontaneous light emission. Even though the heat source significantly increases at the edge of the active region and high resistive regions, the temperature does not change much because of the small size of the active region. Moreover, the resistive and active heating, and total heating dissipation increase with injected currents. The resistive heating dissipation is larger than the active heat dissipation because of high resistivity materials.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technology Center for Offshore Plant Industries, Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering (KRISO), Daejeon, Korea

    Jung Hee Lee

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea

    Joo Hyun Moon & Seong Hyuk Lee

  3. School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Nanyang, 639798, Singapore

    Pei-Chen Su

Authors
  1. Jung Hee Lee
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  2. Joo Hyun Moon
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  3. Pei-Chen Su
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  4. Seong Hyuk Lee
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Pei-Chen Su or Seong Hyuk Lee.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Bong Jae Lee

Jung Hee Lee is currently a Principal Researcher in the Technology Center for Offshore Plant Industries KRISO, Daejeon, Korea. He received a Ph.D. (1998) from Chung-Ang University in Korea. His main research field is the numerical simulation on heat transfer, multi-physics, especially FSI simulation and free surface flows.

Joo Hyun Moon received Ph.D. (2017) from Chung-Ang University in Korea. He is now a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chung-Ang University in Korea. His research interests are droplet evaporation, droplet impingement, interfacial phenomena, and heat transfer.

Pei-Chen Su is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in Nanyang Technological University. Her interests are in microsystem technologies, nanoscale thin film engineering, and patterning technologies at the interface of energy conversion devices, specifically fuel cells.

Seong Hyuk Lee received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in Chung-Ang University in Korea. He is now a Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering at Chung-Ang University. He has explored various research topics on computational heat transfer, phase change, and interfacial phenomena.

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Lee, J.H., Moon, J.H., Su, PC. et al. Numerical analysis of injected current effects on thermal characteristics of vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. J Mech Sci Technol 32, 1463–1469 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-0250-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-0250-5

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