Development of bottom-emitting 1300-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We present experimental results on the development of bottom-emitting GaInNAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) operating at wavelengths near 1300 nm. This development effort is based on the modification of oxide-apertured top-emitting structures to allow emission through the GaAs substrate. Similar device performance was seen in both the top- and bottom-emitting structures. Single-mode output powers (adjusted for substrate absorption) of /spl sim/0.75 mW, with threshold currents of 1.3 mA, were achieved with /spl sim/3.5-/spl mu/m aperture diameters. Larger multimode devices exhibited a maximum adjusted output power of 2.2 mW. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first bottom-emitting flip-chip compatible 1300-nm VCSELs fabricated with GaInNAs-GaAs active regions.     

Optical properties of metamorphic hybrid heterostuctures for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers operating in the 1300-nm spectral range

The possibility of fabricating hybrid metamorphic heterostructures for vertical-cavity surfaceemitting lasers working in the 1300-nm spectral range is demonstrated. The metamorphic semiconductor part of the heterostructure with a GaAs/AlGaAs distributed Bragg reflector and an active region based on InAlGaAs/InGaAs quantum wells is grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on a GaAs (100) substrate. The top dielectric mirror with a SiO₂/Ta₂O₅ distributed Bragg reflector is formed by magnetron sputtering. The spectra of the room-temperature microphotoluminescence of these vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser heterostructures are studied under 532-nm excitation in the power range of 0–70 mW (with a focused-beam diameter of ~1 μm). The superlinear dependence of the photoluminescence intensity on the excitation power, narrowing of the photoluminescence peaks, and a change in the modal composition may be indications of lasing. The results obtained give evidence that the technology of the metamorphic growth of heterostructures on GaAs substrates can be used for the fabrication of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers working in the 1300- nm spectral range.     

Matrices of 960-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Matrices of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with individual addressing of elements and radiation output through a gallium arsenide substrate are implemented. Individual laser emitters with a current aperture diameter of 6–7 μm exhibit continuous-wave room-temperature lasing at a wavelength of 958–962 nm with threshold currents of 1.1–1.3 mA, differential efficiency of 0.5–0.8 mW/mA, and a maximum output power of 7.5–9 mW. The parameter variation of individual emitters within a matrix chip containing 5 × 7 elements does not exceed ±20%.     

Single-frequency 1310-nm AlGaInAs-InP grating-outcoupled surface-emitting lasers

Single-frequency 1310-nm grating-outcoupled surface-emitting (GSE) semiconductor lasers with output slope efficiencies exceeding 0.1 mW/mA into multimode fibers, threshold currents below 22 mA, and >30-dB sidemode suppression ratios are reported. These GSE lasers consist of 500-/spl mu/m-long active ridges that excite one end of surface-emitting second-order outcoupling gratings with 200-/spl mu/m-long first-order distributed Bragg reflector gratings terminating the laser cavities at both ends. The grating outcouplers range from 10 to 50 /spl mu/m in length. These lasers have an open eye pattern for nonreturn-to-zero signals at 2.5 Gb/s into single-mode fibers. The full-width half-maximum far-field beam divergences range from 1.5/spl deg/ /spl times/ 8/spl deg/ to 5/spl deg/ /spl times/ 8/spl deg/.     

Temperature sensitivity of 1300-nm InGaAsN quantum-well lasers

The temperature sensitivity of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)-grown highly strained (/spl Delta//spl alpha///spl alpha//spl sim/2.7%) In/sub 0.4/Ga/sub 0.6/Asand In/sub 0.4/Ga/sub 0.6/As/sub 0.995/N/sub 0.005/ quantum-well (QW) active lasers, with lasing wavelength of 1.185 and 1.295 /spl mu/m, respectively, is analyzed in terms of measured fundamental device parameters. From our analysis, the lower To values for the InGaAsN QW lasers can be explained in terms of the temperature dependence of the current injection efficiency, presumably due to increased carrier leakage in the InGaAsN QW lasers.     

Multi-oxide layer structure for single-mode operation invertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We propose a novel vertical-cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) with Al(Ga)As multi-oxide layer (MOX) structure for the purpose of enlarging window aperture maintaining single transverse mode operation. We have fabricated an InGaAs-GaAs VCSEL with the proposed MOX structure formed on GaAs (311)B substrate. We have performed a numerical simulation to investigate single-mode behavior of the proposed structure and showed a possibility of single-mode VCSEL's with a large active area. We have fabricated an 11-μm current aperture 960-nm wavelength VCSEL with this MOX structure. The threshold current and voltage were 1.0 mA and 2.0 V, respectively, which are comparable to those of conventional oxide VCSELs. In 8-μm aperture, single-mode operation was maintained with a driving current up to four times the threshold     

1300-nm pulsed fiber lasers mode-locked by purified carbon nanotubes

For the first time, we demonstrate a novel passively mode-locked fiber laser operating at 1300 nm using purified single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as a saturable absorber. The saturable absorber incorporates diameter-controlled CNTs with peak absorption /spl sim/1300 nm, guaranteeing mode-locking over the same wavelength region. The ring laser uses praseodymium-doped fiber as a gain medium. The pulse repetition rate is 3.18 MHz, and the spectral half-width is 0.15 nm. Dual-wavelength mode-locking is also demonstrated with a channel spacing of 1.1 nm.     

12.5-gbps operation of 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with reduced parasitic capacitance by BCB planarization technique

12.5-Gbps operation of 850-nm AlGaAs-based VCSEL fabricated using low-k benzocyclobutene (BCB) planarization technique is reported. The BCB has lowest dielectric constant of 2.65 among conventional passivation dielectrics including polyimide and thick passivation can be easily formed by simple planarization technique, resulting in very low parasitic capacitance especially at around the pad electrode. The thick BCB film buried around the epitaxial post structure reduces the parasitic capacitance down to 0.041 pF which is one third as low as that of the conventional SiN passivated VCSELs. The fabricated BCB-planarized VCSEL exhibits very high relaxation oscillation frequency of 12 GHz for the oxide aperture of 6.5 /spl mu/m, which corresponds to high modulation bandwidth f/sub 3dB/ of 16 GHz with relaxation oscillation frequency of 11 GHz for the oxide aperture of 8.5 /spl mu/m. These values are as comparably high as the reported highest values. Open eye-diagrams up to 12.5 Gbps are also confirmed implying that the presented VCSEL is applicable to the optical data network systems such as Giga-bit Ethernet at higher bit rates. Preliminary reliability test result shows stable optical output power at constant operating current at 100 /spl deg/C over 1000 h.     

High-modal gain 1300-nm In(Ga)As-GaAs quantum-dot lasers

A semiconductor laser containing seven InAs-InGaAs stacked quantum-dot (QD) layers was grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Shallow mesa ridge-waveguide lasers with stripe width of 120 /spl mu/m were fabricated and tested. A high modal gain of 41 cm/sup -1/ was obtained at room temperature corresponding to a modal gain of /spl sim/6 cm/sup -1/ per QD layer, which is very promising to enable the realization of 1.3-/spl mu/m ultrashort cavity devices such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. Ground state laser action was achieved for a 360-/spl mu/m-cavity length with as-cleaved facets. The transparency current density per QD layer and internal quantum efficiency were 13 A/cm/sup 2/ and 67%, respectively.     

650-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers: laser properties and reliability investigations

650-nm AlGaInP-AlGaAs-based oxide-confined VCSELs are investigated in dependence on the current aperture size. VCSELs with small aperture (a=5 /spl mu/m) have a maximum continuous-wave (CW) output power of about 1 mW at room temperature. They reach higher operating temperatures (T/sub max/=55/spl deg/C), have narrower beam profiles, less transverse modes, and a higher side mode suppression compared to large aperture VCSELs (a>13 /spl mu/m). The latter devices emit a CW-output power P=3 mW at 20/spl deg/C. Reliability tests of 655-nm devices show at 20/spl deg/C an output power of P/spl ap/0.4 mW over more than 1000 h and at 40/spl deg/C P/spl ap/0.1 mW over 500 h.     

High-speed modulation of 850-nm intracavity contacted shallowimplant-apertured vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

GaAs-AlGaAs quantum-well (850 nn) vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, with lateral current injection and shallow implanted apertures, show small signal modulation bandwidths of at least 11 GHz and large signal data rates of at least 10 Gb/s. The devices achieved a maximum output power of 2.1 mW, with a threshold current and voltage of 1 mA and 1.71 V, respectively. The shallow implantation step provides photolithographically precise aperture formation (using O⁺ ions), for efficient lateral current injection into the quantum-well active region of the laser, from intracavity contacts. The device aperture was 7 μm in diameter, and the opening in the annular top contact was 13 μm in diameter. The optical spectrum showed several transverse modes     

Highly efficient vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers optimizedfor low-temperature operation

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers designed for operation in the temperature range of 77-200 K for cryogenic optical interconnects are reported. Low threshold currents and voltage drops across the mirrors, as well as record high output powers, external efficiencies, and the potential for very high modulation bandwidths are observed     

Degradation-robust 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers for 25Gb/s optical data transmission

Highly efficient fast vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for the 850-nm spectral range, promising for the development of optical interconnections with a data transmission rate of 25 Gbit/s per channel, are fabricated and studied. Lasers with a selectively oxidized current aperture 6 μm in diameter demonstrate multimode lasing with a quantum efficiency of 35–45% and a threshold current of 0.5–0.7 mA in the temperature range 20–85°C. According to the results of small-signal frequency analysis, the maximum modulation frequency of the lasers exceeds 17 GHz, with the rate of its increase with current exceeding 9 GHz/mA^1/2, which provides VCSEL operation at a rate of 25 Gbit/s in the entire working temperature range. Endurance tests for 3000 h did not reveal any sudden degradation of the lasers. The optical power at working point and the threshold current changed relative to that at the beginning of the tests by no more than 5 and 10%, respectively.     

Design for high-power single-mode operation from 2-D surface-emitting ROW-DFB lasers

Stable single-mode single-lobe operation to high powers is predicted for two-dimensional surface-emitting lasers, if second-order distributed feedback/distributed Bragg reflector (DFB/DBR) gratings are preferentially placed in the elements of a resonant-optical-waveguide array. Beside their usual functions (i.e., feedback and outcoupling), the gratings act as an effective array-mode selector due to different interaction with the gratings of different array modes. The in-phase array mode is strongly favored to lase around its (lateral) resonance due to better field overlap with DFB region and lower interelement absorption loss than for nonresonant array modes. For 20-element arrays with 700/600 /spl mu/m DFB/DBR gratings, emitting at /spl lambda/=0.98 /spl mu/m, high (/spl sim/100 A/cm/sup 2/) intermodal discrimination /spl Delta/J/sub th/ is obtained. /spl Delta/J/sub th/ is enhanced to /spl sim/225 A/cm/sup 2/ by introducing free-carrier absorption in the array-interelement regions.     

The use of atmospheric pressure MOVPE for the growth of high performance uncooled 1300 nm DFB lasers

Manufacture of high performance uncooled 1300 nm distributed feed-back (DFB) lasers operating single mode over the −40 to +85°C range requires control of the wavelength variation across a 2″ wafer to less than 10nm and preservation of grating definition during processing and regrowth. We have used atmospheric pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy, without substrate rotation to achieve the necessary uniformity. Material was assessed using photoluminescence, x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, electrochemical current/voltage profiling, and secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The devices are based on a strained quantum well structure with an n-type grating layer to provide gain coupling. The best result gave a wavelength spread across 32×32 mm center square of a 2″ InP wafer of 3 nm. Buried heterostructure DFBs manufactured with high yield in this way operate from −40 to +85°C, with thresholds at 85°C as low as 18 mA.     

Temperature-dependent characteristics and single-mode performanceof AlGaInP-based 670-690-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We report on temperature dependent characteristics and single mode performance of one-wave cavity, planar implanted, AlGaInP-based vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers. By optimizing the overlap between the gain peak and the cavity mode of the structure, we demonstrate record device performance, including 8.2 mW maximum output power and 11% power conversion efficiency for multimode operation and 1.9 mW and 9.6% power conversion efficiency for single mode operation at 687 nm. Improved performance at elevated temperatures is also achieved, with 1.5 mW output power demonstrated at 50°C from a 15-μm-diameter device     

Bow-tie surface-emitting lasers

We report a new design for surface emitting semiconductor lasers operating at 940 nm, incorporating a double-flare cavity, and distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirrors also providing surface emission. This design can take advantage of the modal behavior of the unstable resonator, and has shown very good mode control, with coherent emission from two facets in the same direction. We report preliminary performance results showing very promising characteristics including single-mode diffraction limited operation, and spectral behavior with 42 dB side-mode suppression. This design has exhibited promising results for increasing the current range between the lasing threshold and the filament threshold     

Analysis and design of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers forself-sustained pulsation operation

The generation mechanism of self-sustained pulsation in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) is analyzed with the influence of lateral loss effects, such as self-focusing, lateral diffraction loss, and spatial hole burning, taken into consideration. The condition for self-sustained pulsation is also derived in an analytical form. It is shown that the lateral loss effects have significant influence on the excitation of self-sustained pulsation, especially for devices with small size. Furthermore, the possibility of using diffused quantum-well (QW) structures in VCSELs to enhance self-sustained pulsation is studied. It is found that by using diffused QW structures, the range of core area to obtain self-sustained pulsation is increased. In addition, peak power and repetition frequency of the pulses can also be improved     

Wide temperature (-20°C-95°C) operation of an uncooled2.5-Gb/s 1300-nm DFB laser

This letter describes a 2.5-Gb/s 1300-nm distributed feedback laser that can operate in a wide temperature range of -20°C to 95°C. We present RF and DC characteristics of the device and the statistical distribution of threshold current and slope efficiency at high temperature. Finally, we demonstrate the device performance in a 2.5-Gb/s small-form-factor module up to 85°C     

Fabrication and characteristics of high-speed implant-confined index-guided lateral-current 850-nm vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers

Process technology of high-speed implant-apertured index-guide lateral-current-injection top dielectric-mirror quantum-well 850-nm vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) has been developed. Oxygen and helium implantation for aperture definition and extrinsic capacitance reduction, dielectric mirror formation, p- and n-ohmic contact formation, VCSEL resistance, and thermal analysis were investigated. Employing this technology, GaAs/AlGaAs-based 850-nm VCSELs with small signal modulation bandwidths up to 11.5 Gb/s and an eye diagram generated at 12 Gb/s by a pseudorandom bit sequence of 2/sup 31/-1 were achieved. The bit-error rates were below 10/sup -13/. The threshold current is as low as 0.8 mA for 7-/spl mu/m-diameter current apertures and typical slope efficiencies of 0.45-0.5 mA/mW were obtained.