Paper
16 April 2002 Nondestructive technique for the direct measurement of the local temperature distribution in VCSELs
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Abstract
Thermal effects are of fundamental importance in the cw operation of both gain- and index-guided VCSELs. At today, the actual temperature of operating devices is usually estimated from the spectral shift of the laser emission. This method only probes the temperature distribution averaged over the whole cavity volume and cannot provide spatially resolved information across the VCSEL cross- section. One single experiment has been performed to locally measure the temperature distribution in VCSEL by using a thermal scanning microscope. However, such technique required the cleaving and re-processing of the device. We present a new non-invasive technique to map the temperature of operating VCSELs that can be used to test devices at the wafer level. The method is based on the analysis of the spontaneous emission transmitted through the DBR mirrors. While the sample is temperature stabilized and held onto a xy piezo stage, it is scanned across with an optical microscope (achieving 1 micrometers spatial resolution). The signal is spectrally resolved and analysed by a CCD. By comparing the spectra taken under cw and pulsed current injection, the temperature contribution to the emission lineshape can be extracted straightforwardly. We demonstrate this technique by mapping the temperature rise of a broad area proton implanted VCSEL.
© (2002) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Maurizio Dabbicco, Vincenzo Spagnolo, Michele Ferrara, and Gaetano Scamarcio "Nondestructive technique for the direct measurement of the local temperature distribution in VCSELs", Proc. SPIE 4648, Test and Measurement Applications of Optoelectronic Devices, (16 April 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.462656
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Cited by 4 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

Temperature metrology

Electroluminescence

Mirrors

Semiconducting wafers

Continuous wave operation

Microscopes

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