Antiguided vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) structures

Two types of novel vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) based on antiguided structures have been developed for high power single mode emission: Large-aperture (diameter = 8–12 μm) antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) type VCSELs and two-dimensional leaky-wave coupled phase-locked VCSEL arrays. Effective index modal and fiber mode approximation have been utilized to study their modal behaviors and therefore, the mode-selection mechanisms. Full-wave finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation and 3-D beam propagation modeling have also been developed elsewhere to verify the device design and show close agreements with the effective index calculations.; Two-step Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) growth, selective wet chemical etch and H+ Ion Implantation are used for the fabrication of both structures. For the ARROW VCSEL device with index step of Δn ∼ 0.05 and diameter of 8 μm, record high of 7.1 mW CW single fundamental mode output power has been obtained. While the resonant single mode in-phase emission with output power of 2 mW CW, 40 mW pulsed has been observed from the top-emitting 4 x 4 VCSEL arrays, preliminary result from the junction-down approach shows a promising 10 mW CW out-of-phase emission. Future directions to optimize both the ARROW-type VCSELs and 2-D antiguided VCSEL arrays for higher coherent output power have been discussed.