VCSELs have several advantages with respect to edge emitting semiconductor lasers; one of their major drawbacks
is the lack of polarization control due to the almost absence of any selecting mechanism in the resonator and
active medium. In this paper we will review a technique based on the integration of a shallow grating into the
VCSEL output facet, which gives very good results, provided that a careful design is performed.
Polarization stability of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) is of crucial importance in particular for single-mode devices used in optical communications and optical sensing. We
will consider major approaches to polarization control and then focus on surface gratings, which provide a monolithically integrated type of polarization-dependent feedback. Single-mode as well as multimode grating VCSELs have been fabricated in large
quantity and have been shown to be polarization-stable with high orthogonal polarization suppression ratio not only for static operation but also under digital and analog modulation, temperature variation, optical feedback, as well as externally
applied stress. After reviewing published work on grating VCSELs,
we will discuss grating design variations by means of extensive
vectorial simulations. The reliability of polarization control is then investigated by studying the characteristics of several thousand VCSELs on a given sample. Finally, as an application example in optical communications, we demonstrate free-space transmission of an aggregate data rate of 16 Gbit/s using polarization division multiplexing with two multimode grating VCSELs.
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are used for oxygen monitoring via tunable diode laser spectroscopy
at 760nm wavelength. For the desired application, novel polarization-stable laser diodes based on
AlGaAs were developed.
We present measurements of the pressure-broadening coefficients of the electric dipole forbidden oxygen A-Band b1Σg+ -> X3Σg+ transition at 760nm. For the first time the pressure-broadening coefficients were determined
with a temperature tuned vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. Because of special techniques of polarization
stabilization with a combination of a dielectric surface grating and a surface relief the VCSELs have a mode
hop-free tuning range of more than 7nm and a sidemode suppression of more than 30dB. This provides a low
cost laser diode system with a wide tuning range, which enables the possibility of simultaneous measurement of
temperature, pressure and oxygen concentration in air, high pressure measurements and also a higher accuracy
of oxygen concentration measurements due to averaging over 18 absorption lines.
We numerically investigate how polarization properties of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) are affected by optical feedback from an extremely short external cavity. In order to do it we use a two modes rate equation model that accounts for infinite round trips in the external cavity. With it we perform maps of bistability finding out a modulation of the polarization switching currents when increasing the external cavity length with a period equal to half the wavelength of operation of the device. When the external mirror reflectivity is high enough there is a region within each period of modulation where the VCSEL polarization is stable at any injected current within the operation range. Moreover, using polarized feedback the map of bistability is channelled and the bistable region is almost suppressed. A preliminar study of the effects of temperature variations on the map of bistability is also carried out and presents polarized feedback as a more robust technic to obtain polarization stabilization. An experimentally obtained map of bistability supports the model showing very good agreement with it.
High-performance vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with an emission wavelength of approximately 764 nm are demonstrated. This wavelength is very attractive for oxygen sensing. Low threshold currents, high optical output power, single-mode operation, and stable polarization are obtained. Using the surface relief technique and in particular the grating relief technique, we have increased the single-mode output power to more than 2.5mW averaged over a large device quantity. The laser structure was grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on GaAs (100)-oriented substrates. The devices are entirely based on the AlGaAs mixed compound semiconductor material system. The growth process, the investigations of the epitaxial material together with the device fabrication and characterization are discussed in detail.
Monolithically integrated surface gratings have proven to control the polarization of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) very reliably and effectively. To overcome the drawbacks of these devices with respect to threshold current or differential quantum efficiency we will present in this paper monolithically integrated surface gratings with a modified longitudinal position relative to the standing wave inside the laser cavity. It turns out that an optimum is reached for an additional quarter-wave layer on top of the upper Bragg mirror. In that way the diffraction from the grating and therefore its influence on the other laser properties like threshold, differential quantum efficiency or maximum output power can be reduced significantly, while the polarization control is still maintained. At the same time the requirements on the fabrication accuracy are very relaxed. 118 out of 120 fabricated devices with grating periods between 0.5 and 1.2 μm and grating depths between 35 and 105 nm exhibit a stable polarization orthogonal to the grating grooves. If one limits the lateral extension of the grating to a diameter smaller than the oxide aperture of the laser, the single-mode output power can be increased simultaneously.
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) have now entered
the stage of implementation in optical devices and networks.
Besides the number of properties superior to EEL, VCSELs have the
drawback of less stabilized polarization. As any semiconductor
laser, VCSELs are sensitive to Optical Feedback (OF) due to
parasitic reflections inevitable in practical applications. Here
we experimentally and numerically investigate the spectral and
polarization properties of VCSELs subject to polarization
insensitive optical feedback from an extremely short external
cavity -ESEC (few microns). We observe that the total output power
and the wavelength of laser emission are sinusoidally, in-phase
modulated with the external cavity (EC) length and with a period
equal to half the wavelength of the VCSEL. Moreover the currents
at which the switches between the two linearly polarized (LP)
modes happen and the hysteresis width are also sinusoidally
modulated with the same period. When biasing the VCSEL at the
switching current polarization switching between two orthogonal
linearly polarized states happens at different EC lengths. This
polarization switching happens through a hysteresis when
decreasing and increasing the EC length. We have also develop a
two modes rate equation model that proves and explains the changes
of all VCSEL characteristics observed in the experimental part,
showing very good agreement with the experimental results.
We report on advances in the fabrication and performance of monolithic 850 nm, linearly polarized vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) incorporating a semiconductor surface grating at the outcoupling facet. Depending on the grating parameters, the light is polarized either parallel or perpendicular to the grating grooves. Deep-etched gratings enable complete polarization pinning even in directions that are 45 degrees off the preferred crystal axes. On the other hand, such devices can show strong side-lobes in the far-field which may limit the available output power for some applications. Shallow-etched VCSELs with almost undistorted far-fields deliver output powers as high as 29 mW with about 12 dB orthogonal polarization suppression ratio. A combination
of surface relief and grating is used to increase the transverse single-mode output power while maintaining polarization stability.
Based on design guidelines from a three-dimensional, fully
vectorial model, we have fabricated vertical-cavity
surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with a monolithically integrated
dielectric surface grating for polarization control. For VCSELs
with emission wavelengths of 850 and 980 nm we have achieved
orthogonal polarization suppression ratios (OPSRs) above 15 dB for
all modes up to thermal rollover, which very well agrees with
theory. It is shown both theoretically and experimentally that the
grating has no influence on the emission far-field. The surface
grating has also been combined with a surface relief to stabilize
the polarization and to increase the fundamental mode output power
at the same time.
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