High-power single transverse and polarization mode VCSEL for silicon photonics integration

• DOI: 10.1364/oe.27.018892
• Publication Date: 2019-06-20T18:05:35Z
• Authors: Erik Haglund; Mehdi Jahed; Johan S. Gustavsson; Anders Larsson; Jeroen Goyvaerts; Roel Baets; Gunther Roelkens; Marc Rensing; Peter O’Brien
• Keywords: Technology and Engineering; Polarization control; Optics; Optical fields; 02 engineering and technology; 7. Clean energy; Atomic and Molecular Physics; Grating couplers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; Electron beam lithography; Scanning electron microscopy

We demonstrate a 6.5 mW single transverse and polarization mode GaAs-based oxide-confined VCSEL at 850 nm. High power is enabled by a relatively large oxide aperture and an epitaxial design for low resistance, low optical loss, and high slope efficiency VCSELs. With the oxide aperture supporting multiple polarization unrestrained transverse modes, single transverse and polarization mode operation is achieved by a transverse and polarization mode filter etched into the surface of the VCSEL. While the VCSEL is specifically designed for light source integration on a silicon photonic integrated circuit, its performance in terms of power, spectral purity, polarization, and beam properties are of great interest for a large range of applications.