Round-Trip Operator Technique Applied for Optical Resonators with Dispersion Elements

The round-trip operator technique is widely used for dispersionless optical resonators beginning from pioneering studies of Fox and Li. The resonator modes are determined as eigenfunctions of the round-trip operator and may be calculated by means of numerical linear algebra. Corresponding complex eigenvalues determine the wavelength shifts relative to reference value and threshold gains. Dispersion elements, for example, Bragg mirrors in a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) cause a dependence of the propagation operator on the wavelength and threshold gain. We can determine the round-trip operator in this case also, but the unknown values of the wavelength and threshold gain enter into the operator in a complicated manner. Trial-and-error method for determination of the wavelength shifts and the threshold gains is possible but it is rather time consuming method. The proposed approximate numerical method for calculation of resonator modes is based on the solution of linear eigenvalue problem for the round-trip operator with reference wavelength and zero attenuation. The wavelength shifts and threshold gains can be calculated by simple formulae using the eigenvalues obtained and the computed effective length of the resonator. Calculations for a cylindrical antiresonant-reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) VCSEL are performed for verification of the model.