Diluted nitride edge-emitting and vertical-cavity lasers for 1.3-μm fibre-optic networks

We report on the next generation state-of-the-art semiconductor lasers grown on GaAs substrates in a single nucleation process by molecular beam epitaxy. 1.32-μm single-quantum well ridge-waveguide edge-emitting lasers exhibit a low threshold current density of 563 A/cm² while the maximum continuous-wave optical output power is 40 mW. Optically pumped vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, which consist of GaAs/AlAs distributed Bragg reflectors and specially designed Ga_0.65In_0.35N_0.014As_0.986/GaAs quantum wells, were also grown. An output power of 3.5 mW coupled lenslessly into a standard single-mode fibre is obtained.