Continuously tunable 1.55-μm VCSEL implemented by precisely curved dielectric top DBR involving tailored stress

Author

Tarraf, A. ; Riemenschneider, F. ; Strassner, M. ; Daleiden, J. ; Irmer, S. ; Halbritter, H. ; Hillmer, H. ; Meissner, P.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microstructure Technol. & Anal.s, Univ. of Kassel, Germany

Volume

16

Issue

3

fYear

2004

fDate

3/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

720

Lastpage

722

Abstract

We present an optically pumped and continuously tunable 1.55-μm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The device shows 26-nm spectral tuning range, 400-μW maximum output power, and 57-dBm side-mode suppression ratio. The VCSEL is implemented using a two-chip concept. The movable top mirror membrane is precisely designed to obtain a tailored air-gap length (L´=16 μm) and a radius of curvature (ROC=4.5mm) in order to efficiently support the fundamental optical mode of the plane-concave resonator. It consists of a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) with periodic, differently stressed silicon nitride and silicon dioxide multilayers implemented by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The lower InP-based part, comprising the InP-InGaAsP bottom DBR and the active region, is grown monolithically using metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MOCVD; distributed Bragg reflectors; gallium compounds; indium compounds; laser cavity resonators; laser mirrors; laser modes; laser tuning; micromechanical devices; optical communication equipment; optical design techniques; optical multilayers; optical pumping; plasma CVD; semiconductor growth; semiconductor lasers; silicon compounds; surface emitting lasers; wavelength division multiplexing; 1.55 mum; 16 mum; 26 pm; 4.5 mm; 400 muW; InP-InGaAsP; InP-InGaAsP bottom DBR; SiN; SiO/sub 2/; active region; continuously tunable VCSEL; distributed Bragg reflector; fundamental optical mode; metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy; microelectromechanical devices; monolithic growth; movable top mirror membrane; optically pumped vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser; plane-concave resonator; plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition; precisely curved dielectric top DBR; side-mode suppression ratio; spectral tuning range; stressed silicon dioxide multilayer; stressed silicon nitride multilayer; tailored air-gap length; tailored stress; two-chip concept; wavelength-division multiplexing; Dielectrics; Distributed Bragg reflectors; Laser excitation; Laser tuning; Optical pumping; Optical resonators; Pump lasers; Stress; Tunable circuits and devices; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2004.823734

Filename

1269773