Nonlinear distortion reduction in transverse mode stabilized oxide-confined VCSELs

Author

Carlsson, Christina ; Martinsson, Hans ; Vukusic, Josip ; Halonen, John ; Larsson, Anders

Author_Institution

Dept. of Microelectron., Chalmers Univ. of Technol., Goteborg, Sweden

Volume

13

Issue

5

fYear

2001

fDate

5/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

520

Lastpage

522

Abstract

Fundamental mode operation has been achieved in a large area oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) by etching a shallow surface relief in the top mirror. The nonlinear distortion during analog modulation has been measured and compared to the distortion in a planar multimode VCSEL. The distortion was quantified by conventional two-tone measurements from which the spurious free dynamic range was determined. Several decibels improvement in dynamic range was observed in the low frequency range (0.1-2 GHz) for the single-mode VCSEL. This is primarily due to a higher relaxation frequency and an absence of mode competition and mode partition noise in the single-mode VCSEL, indicating the advantages of using single-mode VCSELs for high-performance analog modulation.

Keywords

laser mirrors; laser modes; laser noise; laser stability; microwave photonics; nonlinear optics; semiconductor device noise; semiconductor lasers; surface emitting lasers; 0.1 to 2 GHz; VCSEL; analog modulation; dynamic range; etching; fundamental mode operation; high-performance analog modulation; higher relaxation frequency; large area oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser; mode competition; mode partition noise; nonlinear distortion reduction; oxide-confined VCSELs; planar multimode VCSEL; shallow surface relief; single-mode VCSEL; spurious free dynamic range; top mirror; transverse mode stabilized; two-tone measurements; Distortion measurement; Dynamic range; Etching; Frequency; Laser modes; Laser noise; Mirrors; Nonlinear distortion; Surface emitting lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.920772

Filename

920772