Title :
Tilt loss in wavelength tunable micromechanical vertical cavity lasers
Author :
Li, M.Y. ; Chang-Hasnain, C.J.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA
Abstract :
Summary form only given. Wavelength tunable vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) have many applications in compact instrumentation and WDM communications. 31.6 nm of continuous tuning has been demonstrated by a micromechanical tunable VCSEL with a movable cantilever. Because the VCSEL´s top mirror is embedded into this movable cantilever, tilt is introduced to this top distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) as the lasing wavelength is tuned. A frequently asked question is the effect of this tilted DBR on the optical mode in such a VCSEL structure. In the paper, we address this question with a numerical approach and show that for devices with diameters of 5 /spl mu/m or less, tilt loss does not dominate modal optical loss in our tunable structure.
Keywords :
distributed Bragg reflector lasers; laser ablation; laser beams; laser mirrors; laser modes; laser tuning; microcavity lasers; micromechanical resonators; numerical analysis; optical losses; optical transmitters; surface emitting lasers; wavelength division multiplexing; VCSEL structure; WDM communications; compact instrumentation; continuous tuning; lasing wavelength; micromechanical tunable VCSEL; modal optical loss; movable cantilever; numerical approach; optical mode; tilt loss; top distributed Bragg reflector; tunable structure; wavelength tunable micromechanical vertical cavity lasers; wavelength tunable vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; Distributed Bragg reflectors; Instruments; Laser tuning; Micromechanical devices; Optical losses; Optical surface waves; Surface emitting lasers; Surface waves; Tunable circuits and devices; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics, 1999. CLEO '99. Summaries of Papers Presented at the Conference on
Conference_Location :
Baltimore, MD, USA
Print_ISBN :
1-55752-595-1
DOI :
10.1109/CLEO.1999.834441
