Performance predictions for vertical-cavity semiconductor laser amplifiers

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser structures are studied theoretically to examine their potential for optical amplification. The major advantages of such a device are the minimal insertion loss and the polarization insensitivity of the gain which the transverse geometry provides. Although single-pass gain is necessarily low owing to a short optical cavity, operation as a Fabry-Perot amplifier in either the reflection or transmission mode ran provide high-performance characteristics. A comparison between edge- and surface-emitting amplifiers shows where advantageous operation can be obtained, and suggests how the best use of the surface-emitting amplifier performance can be made. By considering contrasting device dimensions, we show that gain, saturation output power, and noise characteristics suitable for both fiber optic and array processing configurations are readily attainable