Room-temperature Continuous-wave Threshold Research Articles

Sensitivity of a VCSEL threshold performance to inaccuracies in its manufacturing

AbstractThe paper describes an impact of various possible inaccuracies in manufacturing of verticalcavity surface-emitting diode lasers (VCSELs), like thicknesses and compositions of their layers different from assumed ones, on VCSEL room-temperature (RT) continuous-wave (CW) threshold performance. To this end, the fully self-consistent comprehensive optical-electrical-thermal-recombination VCSEL model has been applied. While the analysis has been carried out for the 1.3-μm oxide-confined intra-cavity contacted GaInNAs/GaAs VCSEL, its conclusions are believed to be more general and concern most of modern VCSEL designs. As expected, the VCSEL active region has been found to require the most scrupulous care in its fabrication, any uncontrolled variation in compositions and/or thicknesses of its layers is followed by unaccepted RT CW lasing threshold increase. Also spacer thicknesses should be manufactured with care to ensure a proper overlapping of the optical standing wave and both the gain and lossy areas within the cavity. On the contrary, less than 5% thickness changes in distributed-Bragg-reflectors are followed by nearly insignificant changes in VCSEL RT CW threshold. However, exceeding the above limit causes a rapid increase in lasing thresholds. As expected, in all the above cases, VCSELs equipped with larger active regions have been confirmed to require more careful technology. The above results should enable easier organization of VCSEL manufacturing.

Room-temperature continuous-wave operation of the In(Ga)As/GaAs quantum-dot VCSELs for the 1.3 µm optical-fibre communication

Efficient room-temperature (RT) continuous-wave (CW) lasing operation of the 1.3 µm MBE (molecular-beam epitaxy) In(Ga)As/GaAs quantum-dot (QD) top-emitting oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting diode lasers (VCSELs) for the second-generation optical-fibre communication has been achieved. In their design, a concept of a QD inside a quantum well (QW) has been utilized. The proposed In(Ga)As/GaAs QD active region is composed of five groups of three 8 nm In0.15Ga0.85As QWs, each containing one InAs QD sheet layer. In each group located close to successive anti-node positions of the optical standing wave within the 3λ cavity, QWs are separated by 32 nm GaAs barriers. Besides, at both active-region edges, additional single InGaAs QWs are located containing single QD layers. For the 10 µm diameter QD VCSELs, the RT CW threshold current of only 6.2 mA (7.9 kA cm−2), differential efficiency of 0.11 W A−1 and the maximal output power of 0.85 mW have been recorded. The experimental characteristics are in excellent agreement with theoretical ones obtained using the optical-electrical-thermal-recombination self-consistent computer model. According to this, for the 10 µm devices, the fundamental linearly polarized LP01 mode remains the dominating one up to the current of 9.1 mA. The lowest RT CW lasing threshold below 5 mA is expected for 6 µm devices.

Structure Optimisation of a Possible 1.5-μm GaAs-based Vertical-cavity Surface-emitting Laser Diode with the GaInNAsSb/GaNAs Quantum-well Active Region

Structure optimisation of the GaAs-based GaInNAsSb/GaNAs quantum-well (QW) vertical-cavity surface-emitting diode lasers (VCSELs) has been carried out using the comprehensive three-dimensional self-consistent physical model of their room-temperature (RT) continuous-wave (CW) threshold operation. The model has been applied to investigate a possibility to use these devices as carrier-wave lasing sources in the third-generation optical-fibre communication. In this simulation, all physical (optical, electrical, thermal and gain) phenomena crucial for a laser operation including all important interactions between them are taken into consideration. As expected, the 1.5λ-cavity VCSEL has been found to demonstrate the lowest RT CW threshold. However, for many VCSEL applications, the analogous VCSEL equipped with a longer 3λ-cavity should be recommended because it exhibits only slightly higher threshold but manifest much better mode selectivity – the desired single-fundamental-mode operation has been preserved in these devices up to at least 380 K. The Auger recombination has been found to be decidedly the main reason of the threshold current increase at higher temperatures. A proper initial red detuning of the resonator wavelength with respect to the gain spectrum may drastically decrease CW lasing thresholds, especially at higher temperatures.

Oxide-confined vertical-cavity laser with additional etched void confinement

A vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser that incorporates oxide confinement with additional etched void photon confinement is described. A room-temperature continuous-wave threshold of 75 µA for a 3.5 µm-diameter lateral device size is achieved.

Continuous-wave operation of ZnMgSSe based blue-green laser diodes under high temperature and high output power

Continuous-wave (CW) operation up to 323K at 1 mW and up to 30 mW at room temperature has been demonstrated for 507nm ZnCdSe/ZnSSe/ZnMgSSe separate-confinement heterostructure (SCH) gain-guided laser diodes. The room temperature CW threshold current and voltage were 27 mA (Jth = 460 A/cm2) and 7.9 V, respectively, with 10 µm-wide stripe and 70/95% reflectivity facet.

A high-efficiency vertical-cavity surface-emitting switching laser fabricated with post-growth cavity mode positioning

The first room-temperature continuous-wave (CW) operation of the double heterostructure optoelectronic switching laser implemented as a vertical-cavity laser is described. A deposited dielectric top reflector of SiO/sub 2//TiO/sub 2/ allowed the use of a cavity etch back technique after the sample was grown, to position the cavity mode at the desired wavelength. Room temperature CW threshold currents as low as 4.8 mA for a 14- mu m-diameter device were obtained with slope efficiencies of 0.45 mW/mA. The maximum CW output power was 2.5 mW and the resistivity was 4*10/sup -4/ Omega cm/sup 2/.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>