We study high-power high bit rate single-mode 1550 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers fabricated using wafer-fusion. The optical cavity was grown on an InP wafer, and the two AlGaAs/GaAs distributed Bragg reflectors were grown on GaAs wafers, all three by molecular-beam epitaxy. The active region is based on thin InGaAs/InAlGaAs quantum wells and a composite InAlGaAs tunnel junction. To confine current and optical radiation, we use a lateral-structured buried tunnel junction with ≈ 6 µm diameter and an etching depth of ≈ 20 nm. These VCSELs demonstrate up to 5 mW single-mode continuous-wave output power and a threshold current of ≈ 2 mA at 25 °C. Even at an ambient temperature of 85 °C, the maximum optical output power is larger than 1 mW. The lasers demonstrate a 34 Gbps non-return-to-zero data transfer rate and 42 Gbps (21 GBaud) using 4-level pulse amplitude modulation at 25 °C back-to-back conditions with ≈ 934 fJ/bit power consumption per bit, which is amongst the lowest values reported for this wavelength range and bit rate.
The essential performance parameters of present generations of Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) like output power, f3dB cut-off frequency, are limited by extrinsic parameters. The most important among them is the shift of the gain maximum out of resonance with the DBR transmission due to increased heating of the active layer with increasing current, leading to a red shift of the emission. Another important limitation of f3dB is the unavoidable resistance by the p-type mirror and capacitance of the actual device generations. We present here a novel Multi-Hole Aperture (MuHA) VCSEL approach1 , based on variable aperture shapes and sizes, leading to increased output power for single/multi-mode emission, reduced series resistance, and larger f3dB of the devices. Holes in symmetric or asymmetric arrangements are etched from the top to the oxidizable layer(s). The aperture shape and size is realized by controlled oxidation of the oxidizable layer(s) through the holes. The holes are subsequently filled with gold, which effectively remove heat from the active layer. In MuHA VCSELs, the temperature of the active area for any given current is thus at least 50% lower than that of a comparable VCSELs processed using a “classical” design, resulting in larger rollover current, f3dB,… Combining MuHA to Multi-Aperture devices called Multi Aperture VCSELs (MAVs) is expected to lead to pseudo single mode emission with an output power of 8-10 mW across 50 μm Multi-Mode Fiber (MMF), enabling to cover much larger transmission distances than hitherto.
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