Rotational symmetry breaking in small-area circular vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

We investigate theoretically the dynamics of three low-order transverse modes in a small-area vertical cavity surface emitting laser. We demonstrate the spontaneous breaking of axial symmetry of the transverse field distribution in such a device. In particular, we show that if the linewidth enhancement factor is sufficiently large dynamical regimes with broken axial symmetry can exist up to very high diffusion coefficients ~ 10 μm²/ns.