Single Vertical-cavity Surface-emitting Laser Research Articles

Characterizing the aggregated encoding method utilizing bursts activated by a VCSEL-neuron with a feedback structure

The rapid advancement of photonic technologies has facilitated the development of photonic neurons that emulate neuronal functionalities akin to those observed in the human brain. Neuronal bursts frequently occur in behaviors where information is encoded and transmitted. Here, we present the demonstration of the bursting response activated by an artificial photonic neuron. This neuron utilizes a single vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) and encodes multiple stimuli effectively by varying the spike count during a burst based on the polarization competition in the VCSEL. By virtue of the modulated optical injection in the VCSEL employed to trigger the spiking response, we activate bursts output in the VCSEL with a feedback structure in this scheme. The bursting response activated by the VCSEL-neuron exhibits neural signal characteristics, promising an excitation threshold and the refractory period. Significantly, this marks the inaugural implementation of a controllable integrated encoding scheme predicated on bursts within photonic neurons. There are two remarkable merits; on the one hand, the interspike interval of bursts is distinctly diminished, amounting to merely one twenty-fourth compared to that observed in optoelectronic oscillators. Moreover, the interspike period of bursts is about 70.8% shorter than the period of spikes activated by a VCSEL neuron without optical feedback. Our results may shed light on the analogy between optical and biological neurons and open the door to fast burst encoding-based optical systems with a speed several orders of magnitude faster than their biological counterparts.

Photonic implementation of the input and reservoir layers for a reservoir computing system based on a single VCSEL with two Mach-Zehnder modulators

Hardware implementation of reservoir computing (RC), which could reduce the power consumption of machine learning and significantly enhance data processing speed, holds the potential to develop the next generation of machine learning hardware devices and chips. Due to the existing solution only implementing reservoir layers, the information processing speed of photonics RC system are limited. In this paper, a photonic implementation of a VMM-RC system based on single Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) with two Mach Zehnder modulators (MZMs) has been proposed. Unlike previous work, both the input and reservoir layers are realized in the optical domain. Additionally, the impact of various mask signals, such as Two-level mask, Six-level mask, and chaos mask signal, employed in system, has been investigated. The system's performance improves with the use of more complex mask(t). The minimum Normalized mean square error (NMSE) can reach 0.0020 (0.0456) for Santa-Fe chaotic time series prediction in simulation (experiment), while the minimum Word Error Rate (WER) can 0.0677 for handwritten digits recognition numerically. The VMM-RC proposed is instrumental in advancing the development of photonic RC by overcoming the long-standing limitations of photonic RC systems in reservoir implementation. Linear matrix computing units (the input layer) and nonlinear computing units (the reservoir layer) are simultaneously implemented in the optical domain, significantly enhancing the information processing speed of photonic RC systems.

High-power and high-quality Gaussian beam in VCSEL via anisotropic modes control

Gaussian beam in the vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) hasimportantapplicationin 3D sensing and optical communications, due to its concentrate energy at center and long propagation distance. However, its beam quality under high power tends to be serious degradation and become annular hollow distribution, severely limiting the use of VCSEL. Here, the anisotropic elliptical oxide aperture VCSEL (AEOA-VCSEL) was designed to achieve high-power Gaussian beam with high-quality via anisotropic modes control. The saturation output power reached up to 8.2 mW under low injection current, to our best knowledge, which was the highest power generated in single VCSEL device. Moreover, the AEOA-VCSEL can control the output beam profile only by adjusting injection current, and could also homogenize the mode spacing among adjacent high-order modes. The facile preparation process and low cost makes the device present great potential in augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), 3D sensing and optical communications.

Fourier Ptychography-Based Measurement of Beam Divergence Angle for Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser

The Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) has led to the rapid development of advanced fields such as communication, optical sensing, smart cars, and more. The accurate testing of VCSEL beam quality is an important prerequisite for its effective application. In this paper, a method for measuring the divergence angle of the VCSEL far field spot based on transmissive Fourier ptychography is proposed. First, a single CCD multi-angle VCSEL far-field spot acquisition system is designed. Second, based on the proposed Fourier ptychographic algorithm with synchronous optimization of embedded optical transfer function, a resolution-enhanced phase image of the spot is reconstructed and the boundary extracted by the Sobel operator of the phase image is defined as the boundary position of the beam waist. In this way, the beam waist radius of the laser beam is calculated. Finally, the divergence angle of the laser beam is measured via the radius of the beam waist. Compared with the traditional Gaussian beam definition method, the method proposed in this paper has higher accuracy in divergence angle measurement. The experimental results show that this method can improve the divergence angle measurement accuracy by up to 9.7%.

High Slope Efficiency Double and Triple Junction 808 nm Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers

High-performance 808 nm double and triple-junction vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) are designed and investigated. The light-current-voltage (L-I-V) characteristics of 808-nm single, double, and triple-junction VCSELs are compared. In the paper, the double-junction VCSELs with two oxide apertures exhibit a very high slope efficiency (SE) of 2.32 W/A at 25 °C, and the peak SE of 2.51 W/A is achieved at 10 °C. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 53.14% is achieved for double-junction individual VCSEL emitter. The peak SE of the triple-junction VCSELs reach 3.40 W/A with the PCE of 53.02% for individual VCSEL emitter. Under narrow pulse test conditions (400 Hz, 60 ns pulse width), the peak output powers of the designed double-junction and triple-junction VCSEL arrays reach 216.11 W and 325.77 W under the injection current of 80 A, respectively. Such high-performance multi-junction 808-nm VCSELs are very important for pumping solid state lasers and medical aesthetics.

GHz Rate Neuromorphic Photonic Spiking Neural Network With a Single Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL)

Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) are highly promising devices for the construction of neuromorphic photonic information processing systems, due to their numerous desirable properties such as low power consumption, high modulation speed, and compactness. Of particular interest is the ability of VCSELs to exhibit neuron-like spiking responses at ultrafast sub-nanosecond rates; thus offering great prospects for high-speed light-enabled spike-based processors. Recent works have shown spiking VCSELs are capable of tackling pattern recognition and image processing problems, but additionally, VCSELs have been used as nonlinear elements in photonic reservoir computing (RC) implementations, yielding state of the art operation. This work introduces and experimentally demonstrates for the first time a new GHz-rate photonic spiking neural network (SNN) built with a single VCSEL neuron. The reported system effectively implements a photonic VCSEL-based spiking reservoir computer, and demonstrates its successful application to a complex nonlinear classification task. Importantly, the proposed system benefits from a highly hardware-friendly, inexpensive realization (a single VCSEL device and off-the-shelf fibre-optic components), for high-speed (GHz-rate inputs) and low-power (sub-mW optical input power) photonic operation. These results open new pathways towards future neuromorphic photonic spike-based processing systems based upon VCSELs (or other laser types) for novel ultrafast machine learning and AI hardware.

Enhanced Performance of Reservoir Computing Using Multiple Self-Injection and Mutual Injection VCSELs

We propose and numerically demonstrate two reservoir computing (RC) schemes using multiple vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with different external injections, i.e., self-injection and mutual injection. The virtual nodes are obtained from the orthogonal polarization modes of multiple VCSELs. We evaluate the performance of our proposed RC systems by using the chaotic time-series prediction and memory capacity (MC). Similar to edge-emitting lasers (EELs), the multiple VCSEL-based RC scheme exhibits better computing performance compared with a single VCSEL using several delay times. More interestingly, numerical results show that our proposed scheme using dual-mode is superior to that using single-mode under the scenario of the same number of virtual nodes, and the scheme using mutual injection VCSELs outperforms that using self-injection VCSELs, in which the coupling mechanism between both polarization modes may play an important role. Further, the effects of different polarized feedback/coupling configurations on both reservoir schemes are discussed in terms of the prediction performance and MC. Additionally, we demonstrate for the first time that the polarization mode competition significantly affects the parallel VCSEL-based RC performance through analyzing its dependence on the feedback phase.

Enhanced prediction performance of a time-delay reservoir computing system based on a VCSEL by dual-training method.

In this paper, a new dual-training method for a time-delay reservoir computing (RC) system based on a single vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally for the first time. The prediction performance of the RC system by using the dual-training method has been experimentally and numerically investigated. Here, the dual-training method is defined as performing a further RC based on the difference between the target value and the predicted value of the traditional single training. It is found that enhanced prediction performance of the RC system can be obtained by employing the dual-training method, compared to the traditional single training method. More specifically, the NMSE values of the RC system with the dual-training method applied can be improved to 760% compared with the single training method in experiments. Besides, the effects of injection power, bias currents, feedback strength, and frequency detuning are also considered. The proposed dual-training method is of great significance to the performance enhancement of the RC and has an important promotion effect on the application of the RC in the future.

Development of high-power VCSEL emitter of size 30mm x 30mm, scalable in two dimensions and applicable to Si wafer annealing

Two-dimensionally scalable vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) emitter of size 30mm×30mm was designed and fabricated for practical applications in the rapid heating processes of large-area targets. Nine emitters were arranged in a 3×3 array for an experimental VCSEL module, which was used for annealing of a 4” Si wafer. Each emitter was composed of 120 chips of size 1.26mm×1.26mm, and each chip was composed of 770 VCSEL diodes of 30μm in diameter, emitting a continuous beam with wavelength of 940nm and maximum optical power density of 47.6W/cm2. Since VCSELs generated a significant amount of Joule heat during operation, an effective cooling system was required for reliable thermal management of the emitter. A water cooling block of 126 microchannel flow passages with the heat transfer area-to-volume ratio approximately 1270m2/m3 was designed and fabricated for each emitter, resulting in the thermal resistance of 0.012K/W, equivalent to the overall heat transfer coefficient of 92,000W/m2K at water flow rate of 1L/min, which was the minimum value for the normal operation of the emitter. By comparing the experimental images on the 4” Si wafer irradiated by the single emitter and by the module with the numerical predictions based on the ray-tracing method, the laser beam emitted from a single VCSEL diode of 30μm in diameter was estimated to have the mode of TEM01* (doughnut profile, multimode) and a divergence angle of 20∘. These were two factors that affected the irradiation uniformity on the target. In addition, to validate the applicability of the high-power VCSEL system to anneal large-area targets, the heating process of 4” Si wafers using the module of nine emitters was experimentally carried out at atmospheric pressure, and was compared with numerical predictions.

Ultrafast neuromorphic photonic image processing with a VCSEL neuron

The ever-increasing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) systems is underlining a significant requirement for new, AI-optimised hardware. Neuromorphic (brain-like) processors are one highly-promising solution, with photonic-enabled realizations receiving increasing attention. Among these, approaches based upon vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) are attracting interest given their favourable attributes and mature technology. Here, we demonstrate a hardware-friendly neuromorphic photonic spike processor, using a single VCSEL, for all-optical image edge-feature detection. This exploits the ability of a VCSEL-based photonic neuron to integrate temporally-encoded pixel data at high speed; and fire fast (100 ps-long) optical spikes upon detecting desired image features. Furthermore, the photonic system is combined with a software-implemented spiking neural network yielding a full platform for complex image classification tasks. This work therefore highlights the potential of VCSEL-based platforms for novel, ultrafast, all-optical neuromorphic processors interfacing with current computation and communication systems for use in future light-enabled AI and computer vision functionalities.

Low-threshold wavelength-tunable ultraviolet vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers from 376 to 409 nm

Optically pumped wavelength-tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) operating in the ultraviolet A (UVA) spectrum were demonstrated. The VCSELs feature double dielectric distributed brag reflectors and a wedge-shaped cavity fabricated using the substrate transfer technique and laser lift off, resulting in a graded cavity length in one device. A resonant period gain structure is used in the InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well active region to enhance the coupling between the cavity mode field and the active layers. The optical field inside the cavity is modulated by the cavity length; thus, tunable lasing at different wavelengths is realized at different points of a single VCSEL chip. The lasing wavelength extends from 376 to 409 nm, covering most of the UVA band below the band gap of GaN. The threshold pumping power density of the UVA VCSELs at different wavelengths ranges from 383 to 466 kW/cm2, which is among the lowest values for ultraviolet (UV) VCSELs. This study is promising for the development of small-footprint, power-efficient UV light sources.

Narrow linewidth VCSEL based on resonant optical feedback from an on-chip microring add-drop filter

We demonstrate a narrow linewidth vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) by injecting resonant optical feedback into the lasing cavity. A single longitudinal mode VCSEL with a Lorentzian linewidth of 32.6 kHz and a purified optical spectrum is experimentally achieved by an on-chip microring add-drop filter with a quality factor of 1.36 million, where the feedback level is ${-}{47.77}\;{\rm{dB}}$. The frequency noise spectrum of the VCSEL demonstrates that the thermo-optic effect in the microring resonator can also stabilize the lasing frequency. A VCSEL with narrow linewidth and stable frequency provides a high-performance light source for a single VCSEL or VCSEL array-based application.

All-optical neuromorphic binary convolution with a spiking VCSEL neuron for image gradient magnitudes

All-optical binary convolution with a photonic spiking vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) neuron is proposed and demonstrated experimentally for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Optical inputs, extracted from digital images and temporally encoded using rectangular pulses, are injected in the VCSEL neuron, which delivers the convolution result in the number of fast ( < 100 ps long) spikes fired. Experimental and numerical results show that binary convolution is achieved successfully with a single spiking VCSEL neuron and that all-optical binary convolution can be used to calculate image gradient magnitudes to detect edge features and separate vertical and horizontal components in source images. We also show that this all-optical spiking binary convolution system is robust to noise and can operate with high-resolution images. Additionally, the proposed system offers important advantages such as ultrafast speed, high-energy efficiency, and simple hardware implementation, highlighting the potentials of spiking photonic VCSEL neurons for high-speed neuromorphic image processing systems and future photonic spiking convolutional neural networks.

Electrically Parallel Three-Element 980 nm VCSEL Arrays with Ternary and Binary Bottom DBR Mirror Layers.

To meet the performance goals of fifth generation (5G) and future sixth generation (6G) optical wireless communication (OWC) and sensing systems, we seek to develop low-cost, reliable, compact lasers capable of sourcing 5–20 Gb/s (ideally up to 100 Gb/s by the 2030s) infrared beams across free-space line-of-sight distances of meters to kilometers. Toward this end, we develop small arrays of electrically parallel vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) for possible future use in short-distance (tens of meters) free-space optical communication and sensing applications in, for example, homes, data centers, manufacturing spaces, and backhaul (pole-to-pole or pole-to-building) optical links. As a starting point, we design, grow by metal–organic vapor phase epitaxy, fabricate, test, and analyze 980 nm top-emitting triple VCSEL arrays. Via on-wafer high-frequency probe testing, our arrays exhibit record bandwidths of 20–25 GHz, optical output powers of 20–50 mW, and error-free data transmission at up to 40 Gb/s—all extremely well suited for the intended 5G short-reach OWC and sensing applications. We employ novel p-metal and top mesa inter-VCSEL connectors to form electrically parallel but optically uncoupled (to reduce speckle) arrays with performance exceeding that of single VCSELs with equal total emitting areas.

Real-time optical spike-timing dependent plasticity in a single VCSEL with dual-polarized pulsed optical injection

We propose and numerically realize an optical spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) scheme by using a single vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). In the scheme, the VCSEL is subjected to an orthogonally-polarized continuous-wave optical injection (OPCWOI) and dual-polarized pulsed optical injections (DPPOI). Based on the widely used spin-flip model, the response spiking dynamics of VCSEL is numerically studied, and then the optical STDP in a single VCSEL is explored. The roles of bias current, the strength of OPCWOI and DPPOI, and the frequency detuning on the optical STDP curve are numerically analyzed. It is found that, by simultaneously utilizing the response spiking dynamics in two orthogonal polarization modes, an optical STDP could be achieved by using a single VCSEL. Furthermore, the weight update of STDP curve can be calculated in real-time. Additionally, the STDP curves can also be controlled by adjusting some controllable parameters. The real-time optical STDP based on a single VCSEL is numerically realized for the first time, which paves the way towards fully VCSELs-based photonic neuromorphic systems with low power consumption.

40 Gbps With Electrically Parallel Triple and Septuple 980 nm VCSEL Arrays

Electrically parallel and optically uncoupled triple and septuple oxide confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays emitting at about 980 nm where each VCSEL has an oxide aperture diameter ( φ ) of ∼7.5 μm transmit data at 40 Gbps at room temperature (RT) in a back-to-back test configuration using standard two-level non-return-to-zero pulse amplitude modulation at bias current densities ( J ) of 17.4 and 10.3 kA/cm2, respectively. Reference single VCSELs processed with the VCSEL arrays on the same wafer pieces with φ ∼7.5, 13.5, and 19.5 μm transmit data at up to 45, 40, and 35 Gbps at RT at J of 20.4, 13.3, and 10.7 kA/cm2, respectively, where the latter two single VCSELs have total emitting areas nearly equal to the total additive emitting areas of the triple and septuple VCSEL arrays, respectively. The RT optical output power at J ∼10 and 15 kA/cm2 is 11.4 and 17.2 mW for the triple arrays and 31.1 and 45.9 mW for the septuple arrays, respectively. By increasing the number of emitters in an array for a fixed φ per VCSEL from 3 to 7 we increase the total optical output power and simultaneously we decrease the J required for error free digital data transmission at 40 Gbps.

Power, Bandwidth, and Efficiency of Single VCSELs and Small VCSEL Arrays

Single-emitter vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and multiple-emitter VCSEL arrays designed for emission at 980 nm, and with large oxide aperture diameters ( φ ) from ∼10.5 to 33.5 μm and with φ of ∼7.5 μm that are configured in three-emitter and seven-emitter electrically parallel triangular and hexagonal arrays, respectively, have record bandwidths and optical output powers for VCSELs with such large cumulative emitting areas. We demonstrate room temperature (RT) maximum small-signal modulation bandwidths ( f 3dBmax) of 26.6 to 18.6 GHz with corresponding continuous wave (CW) optical output powers ( L ) of 16.2 and 47 mW for VCSELs with φ ∼13.5 and 33.5 μm, respectively. For parallel 980 nm triple and septuple arrays with φ ∼7.5 μm for each VCSEL, we demonstrate RT f 3dBmax of 25.5 and 24.8 GHz with corresponding CW L of 22.7 and 50.1 mW, respectively. We perform a comparative analysis of the RT results, which consist of standard static light output power–current–voltage ( LIV ) characteristics to determine the typical VCSEL figures-of-merit including wall plug efficiency (WPE), LI slope efficiency, spectral emission versus current ( I ), and small-signal frequency response curves. We examine the tradeoffs in optical output power, small-signal modulation bandwidth, and WPE for the various VCSEL designs, and find that while the combination of f 3dBmax and L are record values for single VCSELs and VCSEL arrays, these parameters fall off as the cumulative VCSEL array area increases to emit higher overall optical power.

Polarization Multiplexing Reservoir Computing Based on a VCSEL With Polarized Optical Feedback

We propose to realize the parallel tasks processing by reservoir computing (RC) using two polarization-resolved modes in a single vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Two feedback cases, parallelly-polarized optical feedback (PPOF) and orthogonally-polarized optical feedback, are considered in the VCSEL. A time series prediction task and a waveform recognition task are employed to examine the parallel tasks processing performance in two polarization-resolved modes of the VCSEL-based RC system. Through numerical simulations, the dependences of parallel tasks processing performance of the VCSEL-based RC system on the feedback strength, injection strength are analyzed carefully and compared for the two feedback cases. Besides, the effects of injection current, frequency detuning, spontaneous emission noise, and the number of virtual nodes are also examined. It is found that, for both feedback cases, good performance of parallel tasks processing in two polarization modes of the VCSEL-based RC system could be obtained in broad parameter regions, and in these regions a better performance is achieved for the PPOF case. This proposed polarization multiplexing RC based on VCSEL permits parallel tasks processing in two polarization modes in a single VCSEL, and hence is interesting and valuable for low power consumption neuromorphic photonics systems.

VCSEL-based differential modulation technique for high-speed gigabit passive optical networks

ABSTRACTWith the convergence towards 5G, optical networks need to be upgraded to support the emerging data tsunami. This work experimentally demonstrates the first real-time transmission of 20 Gbps over a class 10G 1550 nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) in the context of on-off-keying (OOK) modulation format, by employing VCSEL differential drive mode technique, for adoption in high-speed gigabit passive optical networks (GPONs). Two OOK data streams each with 10 Gbps are differentially modulated onto a single VCSEL, therefore generating an aggregated data rate of 20 Gbps OOK signal. A receiver sensitivity of -13.36 dBm is experimentally achieved. Through extinction ratio optimization, an error free transmission over 24.7 km single mode fibre is attained, with a transmission penalty of 1.91 dB. Our proposed technique alleviates band-limitation of the VCSEL carrier, and doubles the channel data rate without replacing the transmitter optics.

Analysis of optical coupling behavior in two-dimensional implant-defined coherently coupled vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays

Optical coupling behavior and associated effects in two-dimensional implant-defined coherently coupled vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays are studied via both experiments and theoretical calculations. Experiments show that optical coupling between array elements can enhance the array’s output power. Additionally, optical coupling via leaky optical fields can provide extra optical gain for the array elements, which can then reduce the thresholds of these elements. Elements can even be pumped without current injection to emit light by receiving a strong leaky optical field from other array elements. Optical coupling can also cause unusual phenomena: the central elements in large-area coherently coupled VCSEL arrays that lase prior to the outer elements when the arrays are biased, or the average injection current required for each element to lase, which is much lower than the threshold for a single VCSEL. Theoretical calculations are performed to explain the experimental results.