Single-mode photonic-crystal vertical cavity surface emitting laser

Summary form only given. It is not easy to have stable single-mode operation from the conventional VCSEL structure due to spatial hole burning and thermal lensing. In this report, we present "photonic-crystal VCSELs" (PC-VCSELs). The PC-VCSELs are similar to standard VCSELs except that they have a photonic crystal defined by holes in the top mirror region. One photonic crystal structure has a single defect. The defect of the photonic crystal is formed at the center of the photonic crystal. In fact, we borrow the concept of the endless single-mode from photonic crystal fibers (PCF) to accomplish large single mode VCSELs.