Self-pulsing oxide-confined vertical-cavity lasers with ultralow operating current

Includes bibliographical references (page 460).Selectively oxidised vertical-cavity lasers which exhibit self-pulsatin glasing at currents as low as 470nA are reported. Characteristics including linearly polarised emission, narrow linewidths and coherent near- and far-field diffraction indicate that these devices operate as lasers at DC currents 1mA

Selective oxidation of buried AlGaAs for fabrication of vertical-cavity lasers

The authors discuss the selective conversion of buried layers of AlGaAs to a stable oxide and the implementation of this oxide into high performance vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). The rate of lateral oxidation is shown to be linear with an Arrhenius temperature dependence. The measured activation energies vary with Al composition, providing a high degree of oxidation selectivity between AlGaAs alloys. Thus buried oxide layers can be selectively fabricated within the VCSEL through small compositional variations in the AlGaAs layers. The oxidation of AlGaAs alloys, as opposed to AlAs, is found to provide robust processing of reliable lasers. The insulating and low refractive index oxide provides enhanced electrical and optical confinement for ultralow threshold currents in oxide-apertured VCSELs

Uniformity and performance of selectively oxidized VCSEL arrays

The authors report the uniformity characteristics of low threshold 1,060 nm and high power 850 nm 8 x 8 individually addressable oxide-confined VCSEL arrays. Uniformity of lasing thresholds and operating characteristics are described, as well as thermal issues for 2-dimensional laser arrays

InAlGaP vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs): Processing and performance

(Al{sub y}Ga{sub 1{minus}y}){sup 1{minus}x}In{sub x}P semiconductor alloys lattice-matched to GaAs are widely used in visible optoelectronic devices. One of the most recent developments in this area is the AlGaInP-based red vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). These lasers, which employ AlGaInP active regions and AlGaAs distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), have demonstrated continuous-wave (CW) lasing over the 630--690 nm region of the spectrum. Applications for these lasers include plastic fiber data communications, laser printing and bar code scanning. In this paper, the authors present an overview of recent developments in the processing and performance of AlGaInP based VCSELs. This overview will include a review of the general heterostructure designs that have been employed, as well as the performance of lasers fabricated by both ion implantation and selective oxidation

Fabrication issues of oxide-confined VCSELs

To insert high-performance oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface- emitting lasers (VCSELs) into the manufacturing arena, we have examined the critical parameters that must be controlled to establish a repeatable and uniform wet thermal oxidation process for AlGaAs. These parameters include the AlAs mole fraction, sample temperature, carrier gas flow, and bubbler water temperature. Knowledge of these parameters has enable the compilation of oxidation rate data for AlGaAs which exhibits an Arrhenius rate dependence. The compositionally dependent activation energies for Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}As layers of x=1.00, 0.98, and 0.92 are found to be 1.24, 1.75, and 1.88 eV, respectively. 7 figs, 1 tab, 14 refs

Coupled resonator vertical-cavity laser diode

We report the operation of an electrically injected monolithic coupled resonator vertical cavity laser which consists of an active cavity containing In{sub x}Ga{sub 1{minus}x}As quantum wells optically coupled to a passive GaAs cavity. This device demonstrates novel modulation characteristics arising from dynamic changes in the coupling between the active and passive cavities. A composite mode theory is used to model the output modulation of the coupled resonator vertical cavity laser. It is shown that the laser intensity can be modulated by either forward or reverse biasing the passive cavity. Under forward biasing, the modulation is due to carrier induced changes in the refractive index, while for reverse bias operation the modulation is caused by field dependent cavity enhanced absorption

Properties of small-aperture selectively oxidized VCSELs

We report an analysis of the size dependence of VCSEL threshold which agrees with experimental results. The increasing threshold current density of small area VCSELs arises from both increasing threshold gain and increasing leakage current

Highly uniform and reproducible vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

We show that the uniformity of the lasing wavelength of vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) can be as good as {plus_minus}0.3% across a entire 3 in. wafer in MOCVD growth with a similar run-to-run reproducibility

Comparison of Techniques for Bonding VCSELs Directly to Ics

This paper reports the successful bonding of 8 x 8 and 4 x 4 VCSEL arrays to Si CMOS and GaAs MESFET integrated circuits and to GaAs substrates. Three different bonding techniques are demonstrated and their electrical, optical and mechanical characteristics are compared. All three techniques remove the substrate from the VCSEL wafer, leaving individual VCSELs bonded directly to locations within the integrated circuit

Wet oxidation of AlGaAs vs. AlAs: A little gallium is good

Buried oxides formed from the wet oxidation of AlGaAs alloys, rather than AlAs, are found to be superior in terms of oxidation isotropy, mechanical stability, and strain. It is not surprising that vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) using AlGaAs oxide layers as current apertures have shown promising reliability as compared to VCSELs using AlAs layers. Comparisons of lifetime data for VCSELs with differing oxide layers is presented. The beneficial properties of oxides converted from AlGaAs alloys are found to provide robust device processing of reliable VCSELs and may play an important role in other advanced optoelectronic devices