Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers with Continuous Wave Operation

Brief Description

Background

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are semiconductor laser diodes that emit light normal to the substrate. This design has many advantages over edge-emitting lasers and light-emitting diodes, such as low threshold current, circular mode profile, high-speed direct modulation, ability for single longitudinal mode operation, and two-dimensional arraying capability. As opposed to arsenide and phosphide-based devices, electrically-injected III-nitride VCSELs have been relatively difficult to create, and only eight research groups have successfully demonstrated these devices in the past decade. While most of the reports have been on c-plane, m-plane VCELs have been demonstrated and have many advantages, such as lack of the quantum confined Stark effect, higher material gain, and anisotropic gain that leads to 100% polarization ratio. However, m-plane VCSEL devices have not been able to achieve continuous wave operation.

Description

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have created an m-plane VCSEL with an active region that has thick quantum wells and operation in continuous wave. This is the first report of a VCSEL capable of continuous wave operation. Thicker quantum wells (QWs) are possible on semipolar of nonpolar m-plane GaN, in contrast with standard c-plane GaN. These devices have improved thermal performance and a longer cavity length.

Advantages

Applications

Patent Status