Low-threshold 840-nm laterally oxidized vertical-cavity lasers using AlInGaAs-AlGaAs strained active layers

Author

Ko, J. ; Hegblom, E.R. ; Akulova, Y. ; Thibeault, B.J. ; Coldren, L.A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Volume

9

Issue

7

fYear

1997

fDate

7/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

863

Lastpage

865

Abstract

We explore the use of a novel strained AlInGaAs-AlGaAs material system to achieve low-threshold current in oxide-apertured vertical-cavity lasers (VCLs) emitting near 850 nm. We report a low continuous-wave (CW) room-temperature threshold current of 290 μA from top-emitting, 840-nm VCLs with a 5-μm-wide thin-oxide aperture. The low-threshold current has been attributed to the use of strained active layers, which increase the gain and reduce the transparency current. We also studied the effects of post-growth rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on the characteristics of AlInGaAs-AlGaAs VCLs and found that RTA improves the material quality and significantly enhances VCL performance.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; laser cavity resonators; oxidation; quantum well lasers; rapid thermal annealing; 290 muA; 5 mum; 840 nm; AlInGaAs-AlGaAs; AlInGaAs-AlGaAs strained active layers; VCL performance enhancement; continuous-wave room-temperature threshold current; gain; laterally oxidized vertical-cavity lasers; low-threshold current; material quality; oxide-apertured vertical-cavity lasers; post-growth rapid thermal annealing; strained quantum wells; top-emitting VCLs; transparency current; Apertures; Capacitive sensors; Gallium arsenide; Molecular beam epitaxial growth; Optical materials; Quantum well lasers; Rapid thermal annealing; Semiconductor lasers; Threshold current; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.593324

Filename

593324