Electrically gain-switched vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

The authors report electrical gain-switching of a packaged vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Pulse durations as short as 24 ps at repetition rates up to 2 GHz were obtained from a four-quantum-well GaAs/AlGaAs VCSEL, which emits 0.8 mW continuous wave power in a single mode at room temperature and has a current threshold of 5 mA. Simultaneous measurement of the optical spectrum showed an almost transform limited linewidth indicating ultralow chirp. Optical pumping with subpicosecond pulses of the same packaged devices, held at a constant electrical bias, yielded 22 ps pulses, in good agreement with the electrical pumping. Simple calculations show that the pulse duration obtained by gain-switching is limited by the design constraints necessary to operate the VCSEL continuous wave at room temperature with low-threshold current, high-quantum efficiency, and reasonable output power.<>