| Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) show great potential for a variety of applications ranging from high speed optical communication systems, optical printing to optical storage, due to their many benefits over conventional edge emitting lasers. However, a main obstacle remained due to their poor transverse mode property.; In this work, novel passive antiguide design is used and the world's largest single mode VCSEL (16{dollar}mu{dollar}m) is obtained with very low threshold current and voltage. Organometallic chemical vapor deposition (OMCVD) regrowth technology is successfully developed to fabricate the laser. More than 99% yield on the laser is achieved with excellent performance uniformity.; Beam propagation method and multimode rate equations are used in the theoretical analysis. Quantitative criterion for single mode lasing is derived for VCSELs. Novel optical model for the VCSEL is proposed and it is shown that our novel structure is very efficient in achieving single mode operation.; A novel and physically-sound quality control and yield theory is developed to predict and improve laser quality and yield. It agrees extremely well with experimental data, ranging from laser fabrication to integrated circuits (IC) fabrication. It provides physical insights into the fabrication process and tells information about the quality limiting factors in the production line for future quality improvements. |
