Vol. 31, Issue 2, pp. 289-299 (2001)

Abstract

During the last several years selective steam oxidation process has evolved into a key technology in fabrication of high-performance vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). In the paper, kinetics of AlAs steam oxidation process in cylindrically symmetric VCSEL mesa structures is investigated theoretically. Compact analytical formulae describing the oxidation process are derived and discussed. The process parameters are extracted from existing experimental data. The parameters are found to be strongly dependent on the AlAs layer thickness and temperature. It is shown that significant differences exist between the predictions of the cylindrical model and those of widely used one-dimensional Cartesian model. Our detailed model can therefore be very important for achieving a good control of the oxidation process in fabrication of modern VCSELs.