Single-mode, passive antiguide vertical cavity surface emitting laser

Abstract

We report the characteristics of a single-mode, low threshold, passive antiguide region (PAR) vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) using both organometallic chemical vapor deposition (OMCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) for the regrowth of the PAR structure. The novel passive antiguide region surrounding the active region is demonstrated to be a highly effective transverse mode and polarization mode selection mechanism. A stable single fundamental mode at high currents has been achieved experimentally for laser aperture as large as 16 /spl mu/m diameter, In addition, very low threshold current of 0.8 mA and current density of 490 A/cm/sup 2/ are achieved with 8 and 32 /spl mu/m diameter VCSEL's, respectively. A detailed numerical two- and three-dimensionaI analysis was performed using the beam propagation method. The modal losses were calculated as a function of the cladding refractive index and the laser size. Quantitative results leading to approximate formulae have been achieved. The high mode selectivity obtained from the numerical analysis is in good agreement with the experimental results we have achieved. >