Bloch analysis of photonic lattices that incorporate vertical cavity surface-emitting laser arrays

We analyzed one-dimensional photonic lattices that incorporate mirror–modulated vertical cavity surface–emitting laser arrays utilizing the Bloch formalism. First, infinitely long arrays are considered. The in–phase mode (with a main central lobe at the far field) and antiphase mode (with two main symmetrically–located lobes at the far–field) are examined. A comparison of the modal losses of the in–phase and the antiphase modes, resulted in the discovery of regimes in which the in–phase mode is dominant. Considering lattices of finite length, we compared the results of the Bloch model to the exact solutions. It is shown that the boundary conditions in these lattices select a specific mode from the continuous spectrum in the infinite case. Consequently, the lattice’s length affects the eigenmodes and the corresponding eigenvalues in a periodic manner.