HIGH-PERFORMANCE, PRODUCIBLE VERTICAL-CAVITY LASERS FOR OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS

In this paper we review the state-of-the-art performance of producible, 850 nm, current-guided GaAs/AlGaAs , top-emitting vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). We discuss the motivation and desired characteristics for pursuing VCSELs, particularly in the area of high speed optical data links. We demonstrate that this structure is indeed producible and reproducible using MOVPE, where exceptional uniformity across wafers and arrays is obtained from commercial chambers. Record performance is also reported using MOVPE-grown GaAs VCSELs. These records include submilliamp (0.68 mA) CW room temperature threshold currents, <1.6 V threshold voltages, over 28% total wall-plug efficiency, over 59 mW of (unbonded) power, 200° C lasing, operation over a 100 nm wavelength regime, and other records that rival or exceed those obtained even from strained-layer InGaAs VCSELs of any structure. We also present novel extensions of this base VCSEL platform for lateral mode control, illustrating the flexibility and extendibility of this technology. Finally application of these arrays as 32-channel-wide Opto-Electronic Technology Consortium (OETC) parallel links are shown with error free operations up to 700 Mbits/s (Manchester coded) through 100 m of fiber.