SIMULATION OF THREE DIMENSIONAL CURRENT SPREADING IN PHOTONIC CRYSTAL VCSEL STRUCTURES Approved by:

To my parents, “Ours is but to reason why” iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to express my immense gratitude to my Advisor,Dr Benjamin Klein, who provided me with an opportunity to conduct research and also proved the Advisor rumors totally wrong. I would also like to thank Dr Alexey Maslov of Canon USA. His constant help and guidance have been very important factors during the entire course of my research. I express my gratitude to Dr P.D.Yoder, Anusha and Sriraman for the help and support they have provided. I would like to thank my friend Vivek. This work would not have begun without him. I would also like to thank Fahad for all the delicacies that my appetite has enjoyed. Finally, to everybody else who was there, in good times and bad, Thank you