A new vertical cavity surface emitting laser(VCSEL) with radiation bridge structure is designed and fabricated to improve the thermal characteristics and output power.Based on ANSYS finite-element software,the internal distribution of thermal fields and heat flow vector distribution of VCSEL are analyzed.According to simulation results,the thermal resistances of the traditional-structure VCSEL and the radiation bridge-structure VCSEL are 4.13 K/W and 2.63 K/W,respectively.These are in good agreement with the experimental results which are 4.4 K/W for traditional-structure VCSEL and 2.93 K/W for the radiation bridge-structure VCSEL.Moreover,the maximum output power of both structures is also measured in the experiment.The results show that the maximum output power of the traditional-structure VCSEL is 305 mW and that of the radiation bridge-structure VCSEL can reach 430 mW,i.e.the maximum output of radiation bridge structure is increased by over 40%.