Optically pumped 1.3 micron VCSELs

Summary form only. Over the past two years, Gore Photonics has reported a new long-wavelength VCSEL structure that employs an electrically pumped short-wavelength VCSEL optical pump to drive a 1300 nm VCSEL, as an alternative to direct current injection. This approach offers a number of theoretical advantages that have led to a variety of performance records. These devices have produced the highest room temperature power, highest room-temperature single mode power, lowest voltage, and highest speed of any VCSEL at 1310 or 1550 nm. Recent efforts have focused on driving these devices towards application in real systems. This work includes integration with laser drivers, single-mode packaging, relative intensity noise characterization, and systems demonstrations over tens of kilometers of single-mode fiber. This work demonstrates that devices comply with many commercial standards requirements, and have performance comparable to DFB lasers in many applications. In short, 1300 nm VCSELs provide a low-cost single mode solution for many data communication and telecommunications applications. Furthermore, these devices can be converted into WDM arrays with minimal additional fabrication complexity, enabling low-cost WDM array transmitters. These devices not only exhibit excellent performance, but lend themselves to large-scale production and reliable operation. This paper summarizes the most recent device results, systems experiments, and status of reliability and manufacturability.