Tunable doped-fibre vertical cavity surface emitting laser

A simple way to improve the output power of singlemode tunable VCSELs is demonstrated. It is based on a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA)-like embodiment of a fibre-VCSEL. The reported device, operating at 1.55 m, uses a single pump source to photo-excite both a semiconductor structure and a doped fibre without compromise in compactness. Initial results show continuous tunability over 11 nm and fibre-coupled output power of 3.1 mW. It is noted that this approach can be extended to any part of the spectrum for which rare-earth doped optical fibres are available.