Behavior Of Vertical-cavity Surface-emitting Lasers Research Articles

PHYSICS OF SEMICONDUCTOR VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASERS

We describe recent progress in the physics of light-matter interactions in vertical-cavity surface-emitting-laser (VCSEL) structures. Enhanced spontaneous emission indicates strong medium-cavity coupling. The linewidth broadening factor is more accurately determined in VCSELs, supporting many-body theory of semiconductor nonlinearities. Threshold behavior of VCSELs and microlasers is investigated by photon-correlation experiment and quantum laser theory with emphasis on the importance of second-order coherence properties. External optical injection into a VCSEL cavity leads to injection locking, instabilities, acceleration of coherent energy transfer and sideband lasing, most of which are modeled successfully by recently-developed first-principles semiconductor laser theory.

Dynamic, polarization, and transverse mode characteristics of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

The dynamic, polarization, and transverse mode characteristics of strained InGaAs-GaAs quantum well vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) emitting at 0.98 mu m are investigated. The dynamic behavior of VCSELs with high and low operating voltages and series resistances is compared. A large wavelength chirp in the lasing spectrum was observed for the lasers with high voltage/resistance, even under low-duty-cycle pulse operation. This is thought to be due to resistive heating close to the laser junction. It is observed that the transverse mode structure of VCSELs and their dependence on laser dimensions and drive current are highly analogous to those of edge emitting lasers, whereas the polarization characteristics of the two types of lasers are significantly different.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>