Watt-class high-power and high-beam-quality VCSEL amplifiers

Summary form only given. We are reaching one of the most important aspects of the tera era is the need for high-speed interconnections between computers and peripherals. The use of optical interconnects using low-cost optoelectronic components will be key to the development of computer networks of the future. A very important technology which will enable high-speed optical interconnects is the vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) technology. These lasers can be made and tested in a fashion similar to light emitting diodes, allowing low-cost manufacturing, and can be made into two-dimensional arrays, allowing unique signal processing capabilities. Many R&D groups are busy developing VCSEL technology. The state-of-the-art of VCSEL technology has reached a very impressive level with threshold currents of the order of 100 μA and internal efficiencies greater than 50%. VCSELs have been developed over a wide wavelength range from 650nm to 1550 nm using conventional epitaxial growth techniques or more sophisticated techniques such as wafer fusing and bonding.

Vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is an important laser source for their evident plentiful applications in optical communication. The present investigation reports a comparison of the modeling and optimization of long wavelengths 1310 nm and 1550 nm high speed short cavity VCSEL for continuous wave operation at various temperature (283-3230K) for various diameters. The continuous wave lasing is demonstrated for the device diameter from 2 to 5 μm with threshold current of 1.07-1.33 mA with threshold power consumption of 1.86-2.57 mW for 1310 nm and threshold current of 0.94-1.24 mA and threshold power consumption 1.67-2.1 mW for 1550 nm VCSEL. The results demonstrate that the threshold current, peak emitted power and power consumption increases with the increase in device diameter. The results confirm that VCSELs with 2 μm diameter is most suitable to achieve energy-efficient operation. Although rollover current increases with the diameter, but, due to the advantage of lower threshold current and power consumption, VCSEL having smaller diameter is best suited. The power conversion efficiency for proposed long wavelength VCSELs is approximately 50% which is extremely useful for low power applications. The proposed VCSELs are suitable for very short reach (<2 m) optical interconnects such as chip-to-chip and board-to-board communication in high performance computers.

Data are presented demonstrating a new lithographic vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) technology, which produces simultaneous mode- and current-confinement only by lithography and epitaxial crystal growth. The devices are grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy, and have lithographically defined sizes that vary from 3 μm to 20 μm. The lithographic process allows the devices to have high uniformity throughout the wafer and scalability to very small size. The 3 μm device shows a threshold current of 310 μA, the slope efficiency of 0.81 W/A, and the maximum output power of more than 5 mW. The 3 μm device also shows single-mode single-polarization operation without the use of surface grating, and has over 25 dB side-mode-suppression-ratio up to 1 mW of output power. The devices have low thermal resistance due to the elimination of oxide aperture. High reliability is achieved by removal of internal strain caused by the oxide, stress test shows no degradation for the 3 μm device operating at very high injection current level of 142 kA/cm 2 for 1000 hours, while at this dive level commercial VCSELs fail rapidly. The lithographic VCSEL technology can lead to manufacture of reliable small size laser diode, which will have application in large area 2-D arrays and low power sensors.

Short-reach optical interconnects among massive serves in data centers have attracted extensive research recently. Increasing capacity, cost and power efficiency as well as wavelength switching between data center network nodes are still key challenges for current optical interconnects. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the real-time inter-mode optical wavelength switching technique, for high-speed wavelength flexible data center interconnects. A 10 Gbit/s 1 550 nm single mode vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is optically injected and used to control a 10 Gbit/s multimode VCSEL carrier at 850 nm. Results show that a clearly open eye diagram is achieved at back-to-back analysis, implying a successful wavelength switch and error-free operation at 10 Gbit/s. A fully optical wavelength conversion of a multimode VCSEL operation at 850 nm using a single mode VCSEL subject to external optical injection at 1 550 nm is reported. This work opens new perspectives towards the development of a cost effective high-speed real-time inter-band wavelength switching technique between servers and network devices operating at different transmission windows at network nodes, for current and future optical interconnects.

Optical data transmission will greatly benefit by taking the step from the transmission wavelength of 0.85 /spl mu/m to 1.3 /spl mu/m, since this will allow a much extended transmission distance at high data rates as well as greatly enhanced eye-safety. Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) are key components for low-cost systems (such as Gb Ethernet). This paper therefore addresses the status of VCSELs emitting around 1.3 /spl mu/m. The various approaches based on both GaAs- and InP-based active regions will be outlined and their respective advantages and drawbacks will be discussed. At present, devices based on InGaAsN-GaAs quantum wells offer the highest promise due to their superior optical output powers at both room temperature and at elevated temperatures. At the same time they benefit from the utilisation of standard GaAs/AlAs VCSEL technology.

Remarkable progress made in performance characteristics and reliability of high-speed (> 10 GHz) 850-nm multi-mode (MM) oxide-confined vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) during the last decade has led them to find applications in space satellite systems. The main advantage of deploying high-speed VCSELs in space satellites over directly modulated 850-nm edge emitting lasers is the absence of COMD (catastrophic optical mirror damage). In recent years, leading VCSEL manufacturers introduced higher speed (~ 20 GHz or 25 Gbps) VCSELs with encouraging characteristics. However, little has been reported on reliability and failure modes of these state-of-the-art VCSELs although it is crucial to understand failure modes and degradation mechanisms in these VCSELs through physics of failure investigation and subsequently develop VCSELs that exceed lifetime requirements for space satellite systems. For the present study, we performed short-term and long-term accelerated life-tests on 25 Gbps oxide-confined MM VCSELs to study reliability of these devices. Our goal is to extract credible reliability model parameters (thermal activation energy and current exponent factor) from these life-tests to determine suitability of these lasers for future space satellite systems. We also performed failure mode analysis on VCSELs at different stages of degradation using various techniques. We employed nondestructive techniques including optical beam induced current (OBIC) and electron beam induced current (EBIC) techniques as well as destructive techniques including focused ion beam (FIB) and high-resolution TEM techniques. Our detailed reliability and failure mode analysis results are reported along with our understanding on the physical origin of degradation in high-speed VCSELs with strained InGaAs quantum wells.

Continuous wave (CW) operation at room temperature of electrically pumped InGaAlAs/InP vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) at emission wavelengths as high as 2.3 µm is demonstrated for the first time. Devices with 15 µm active region diameter show a maximum output power of 0.75 mW at 20°C and a maximum CW operating temperature of 45°C.

This manuscript reviews the present status of 'commercial- grade,' state-of-the-art planar, batch-fabricable, vertical- cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). Commercial-grade performance on all fronts for high-speed data communications is clearly established. In discussing the 'present,' we focus on the entrenched proton-implanted AlGaAs-based (emitting near 850 nm) technology. Renditions of this VCSEL design exist in commercial products and have enabled numerous application demonstrations. Our designs more than adequately meet producibility, performance, and robustness stipulations. Producibility milestones include greater than 99% device yield across 3-in-dia metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE)-grown wafers and wavelength operation across greater than 100-nm range. Progress in performance includes the elimination of the excessive voltage-drop that plagued VCSELs as recently as 2 to 3 years ago. Threshold voltages as low as V<SUB>th</SUB> equals 1.53 V (and routinely less than 1.6 V) are now commonplace. Submilliamp threshold currents (I<SUB>th</SUB> equals 0.68 mA) have even been demonstrated with this planar structure. Moreover, continuous wave (cw) power P<SUB>cw</SUB> greater than 59 mW and respectable wall-plug efficiencies ((eta) <SUB>wp</SUB> equals 28%) have been demonstrated. VCSEL robustness is evidenced by maximum cw lasing temperature T equals 200 degrees Celsius and temperature ranges of 10 K to 400 K and minus 55 degrees Celsius to 155 degrees Celsius on a single VCSEL. These characteristics should enable great advances in VCSEL-based technologies and beckon the notion that 'commercial-grade' VCSELs are viable in cryogenic and avionics/military environments. We also discuss what the future may hold in extensions of this platform to different wavelengths, increased integration, and advanced structures. This includes low-threshold, high- speed, single-mode VCSELs, hybrid VCSEL transceivers, and self-pulsating VCSELs.

The aim of this work is to fabricate high-power, single mode vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). Multiple junction VCSELs provide a pathway towards scaling optical output power. However, especially in the case of oxide confinement, these lasers have a greater tendency to exhibit multimode behavior when compared to their single junction counterparts. To achieve high-power, single mode multi-junction VCSELs, more advanced single mode strategies must be employed. A two-dimensional complex refractive index model was applied to model the transverse modes of photonic crystal VCSELs in order to determine the most suitable designs. Oxide confined VCSELs were fabricated using 850 nm single and double junction wafers, as well as 940 nm double and triple junction wafers. We report a maximum single mode power of 8.0 mW from the 850 nm double junction VCSELs and 10.7 mW from the 940 nm triple junction VCSELs. Double junction implant/oxide VCSELs were also fabricated and produced a peak single mode power of 8.1 mW.

Communication technologies such as wireless and optical fiber are vital components of today's environment. As demand for increased data transfer and new technologies increases, novel research must be performed to combine the benefits of both technologies. In this case, optical communication technologies serve as the backbone of wireless technology. Currently, only a few studies have been conducted on Free Space Optical (FSO) communication employing Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and VerticalCavity SurfaceEmitting Lasers (VCSELs). When VCSEL is paired in conjunction with FPGA, there are only very few existing designs. These published researches cover many subjects yet are exceedingly complex and fragmented. The principal purpose of this Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is to identify the research trends and emerging themes in the development of FPGA-based Optical Hybrid Fiber - FSO Communication Systems. This review incorporates articles from prestigious journals that were indexed in scientific databases such as Science Direct, Shodh Ganga, IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar, and Scopus. This SLR exhibits the reliability and compatibility of FPGA-based FSOs when used with a lowcost optical source VerticalCavity SurfaceEmitting Laser Diode VCSEL), a range of technologies, communication methods, and approaches. This FPGA-based FSO is designed for optical communication applications that require highly secure transmission schemes, low radiation noise, a low bit error rate (BER), and increased data transfer rates. Additionally, VCSEL has a current threshold that is low, maximum conversion efficiency of power, and least consumption of power. Findings of this study can be used to direct future research in the area of hybrid Fiber-FSO optical communication systems development utilizing VCSEL and FPGA.

4 - Recent advances in surface-emitting lasers

This paper is going to review the state-of-the-art of the high-speed 850/940-nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), discussing the structural design, mode control and the related data transmission performance. InGaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) was used to increase the differential gain and photon density in VCSEL. The multiple oxide layers and oxide-confined aperture were well designed in VCSEL to decrease the parasitic capacitance and generate single mode (SM) VCSEL. The maximal modulation bandwidth of 30 GHz was achieved with well-designed VCSEL structure. At the end of the paper, other applications of the near-infrared VCSELs are discussed.

High-frequency discrete and distinct mode-beating noise (MBN) spectra are an anomalous phenomenon observed in the related intensity noise spectrum from the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL), which reveals strong correlation with fine-splitting transverse modes caused by non-circular emission aspect of the VCSEL with imperfect true-roundness. Such a phenomenon is demonstrated for the first time, which seriously degrades the transmission performance of high-speed and broad-band encoding data carried by the multi-mode (MM) VCSEL biased under a large DC bias. In this work, the 4-ary quadrature-amplitude modulation (4-QAM) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and the non-return-to-zero on–off keying (NRZ-OOK) transmissions with the direct modulation of different 850-nm MM VCSELs, as suffered from the MBN-induced notches of the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) spectra, are characterized under their high-level lasing conditions with multi-mode numbers. The significant SNR degradation on the receiving and decoding performances caused by the cross-correlation between MBN and data spectra is also examined by tuning the lensed fiber along the transverse (X/Y)-axis of the VCSEL (perpendicular to the surface normal) when collimating the output beam, which finds the disorderly shifted MBN spectra, as attributed to the collection of light emitted from the overlapped gain region of different transverse modes. In contrast, the MBN reveals invariant spectral features while the lensed fiber is either back-and-forth tuning along the vertical (Z)-axis (parallel with the surface normal) or tilting its angles from the surface normal under the same horizontal position and distance concerning the MM VCSEL. Such MM VCSEL exhibits several MBN spikes to decay the SNRs of NRZ-OOK and QAM OFDM data encoded around 21 and 34 GHz. For other MM VCSELs with reducing numbers of their transverse lasing modes and deforming roundness of their circular emitting aspects, the corresponding MBN spectral peaks can also be respectively observed at 14/17/24 GHz and 4.5/10.5/13 GHz to degrade the SNRs of the encoded data at such frequencies. Even though pre-emphasized encoding technology is employed, such an MBN effect is strongly correlated with the asymmetric circular aspect of the VCSEL with a degraded roundness ratio, which still affects the data modulation performance of the MM VCSEL for data center communication.

Group III-nitrides have been considered a promising choice for the realization of optoelectronic devices since 1970. Since the first demonstration of the high-brightness blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by Shuji Nakamura and coworkers, the fabrication of highly efficient white LEDs has passed successful developments. A serious physical issue still remained, which prevents their use for high power and highly efficient LEDs: the drop of external quantum efficiency (EQE) of III-nitride LEDs when increasing the driving current, the so-called ''efficiency droop'' problem. In order to have a fast expansion to the lighting market, the cost-per-lumen of packaged LEDs must rapidly decrease. This indeed demands for having LED chips operating with high EQE under the high current operation. Besides the industrial interest of III-nitrides, owing to their large direct bandgap, they feature some interesting optical properties such as large exciton binding energy and large oscillator strength of excitons. However, when the carrier density raised in a semiconductor, a transition should occur from an insulating state consisting of a gas of excitons to a conductive electron-hole plasma, that is called the Mott transition. This crossover can drastically affect the optical and electrical characteristics of semiconductors and may, for instance, drive the transition from a polariton laser to a vertical cavity surface-emitting laser. More interestingly, even if biexcitons are frequently seen to dominate the emission of III-nitride heterostructures when the density is raised, no clear experimental report is available on the role of biexcitons in the Mott transition in a two-dimensional (2D) nanostructure. In the first part, the emission properties of high-quality GaN/AlGaN single quantum wells (QWs) at high-carrier densities are examined. They are of crucial importance to provide a deeper insight into the operating conditions of III-nitride based lasers and LEDs, as well as the transition from strong to weak coupling regime of exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities. Employing the same technique then to investigate some InGaN/GaN QWs, the droop signature was investigated comprehensively in both polar and non-polar QWs. Having an accurate estimation of the carrier density in the QWs, the contribution of several non-radiative processes were quantitatively examined. These experiments can indeed provide a deeper insight on the physical phenomena responsible for the efficiency droop in III-nitride LEDs, and can stimulate several theoretical and experimental on this subject. The second part focuses on the transport mechanisms of excitons in ZnO and III-nitride based nano-structures. The transverse movement of donor-bound excitons in a purely bent ZnO microwire as a function of temperature have been investigated, owing to the high spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions of our original time resolved cathodoluminescence system. The movement mechanism was modeled by a hopping process of excitons. Our results pave the way to new experiments allowing to reveal the physics at play at the nanoscale in different materials. However, in case of highly disordered systems, one should take into account more complex considerations, as in the case of InGaN core-shell QW structures studied in the last chapter, the large energy fluctuations prevent excitons to move along the energy gradient at low temperatures.

An optical waveguide interconnect mesh network scheme for parallel multiprocessor systems based on an electro-optical printed circuit board (EOPCB) with multimode polymer waveguide is proposed.The system consists of 2×2 processor element chips interconnected in a mesh network configuration.An additional layer with optical waveguide structure is embedded in a conventional printed circuit board to construct the EOPCB.Vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)/positive intrinsic-negative (PIN) arrays are applied as the optical transmitters/receivers.Three 1×12 VCSEL/PIN parallel optical transmitting/receiving modules are used to provide 32 input/output optical channels required by the 2×2 chip-to-chip optical mesh interconnect system.The data rate in each optical channel is 3.125 Gbps and thus 10 Gbps parallel optical interconnect link for each direction of a chip is obtained.The optical signals from a processor element chip can be transmitted to another chip through optical waveguide interconnect embedded in the board.Thus the optical interconnect mesh network for parallel multiprocessor system can be implemented.