This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 8276, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and the Conference Committee listing.

Commercial demand for optical transceivers operating at 14Gbps is now a reality. It is further expected that communications standards utilizing 850nm VCSELs at speeds up to 28Gbps will be ratified in the near future. We report on the development and productization of 850nm VCSELs for several applications, including high speed (both 14Gbps and 28Gbps) operation to support the continued fulfillment of data communication demand.

Emcore's 850 nm Ultralase^TM VCSELs, operating at a data rate from 1 Gb/s to 25 Gb/s, is presented. They were based on our low-cost and hermetic-by-design chip platform which contains the same element for either singlets or arrays with a 250 μm pitch. First, we discuss high-speed VCSEL evolutions, device designs, manufacturing processes, and device characteristics. Secondly, we present performance of Emcore's TOSAs, 40 Gb/s parallel optic modules (S12), 120 Gb/s CXP modules, active connect cables (40 Gb/s QDR and 56 Gb/s FDR), as well as comprehensive reliability qualifications of Ultralase^TM VCSELs. Lastly, we briefly go over the recent progress of 20 Gb/s and 25 Gb/s VCSEL developments. We have successfully achieved a 3dB bandwidth of 15 GHz at 85°C and 8 mA for a 7.5 μm aperture Ultralase^TM VCSEL.

Furukawa's 1060nm VCSELs with double-intra-cavity structure and Al-free InGaAs/GaAs QWs enable us to realize low power consumption, high speed operation and high reliability simultaneously. The power dissipation was as low as 140fJ/bit. Clear eye opening up to 20Gbps was achieved. Random failure rate and wear-out lifetime were evaluated as 30FIT/channel and 300 years. For higher speed operation, thickness of oxidation layer was increased for lower parasitic capacitance of device. Preliminary reliability test was performed on those devices. In high speed operation faster than 10Gbps, conventional lifetime definition as 2dB down of output power is not sufficient due to smaller margin of modulation characteristics. We suggest threshold current as a barometer for degradation of modulation characteristics. The threshold currents of our VCSELs degrade small enough during accelerated aging test. We also observed no remarkable change in 25Gbps eye diagram after aging test. The definition of life time for high speed VCSEL is discussed from the change in threshold current and so on in addition to the conventional power degradation during aging. It is experimentally verified that our VCSELs are promising candidate for highly reliable light source including long term stable high speed operation.

The copper-induced communication bottleneck is inhibiting performance and environmental acceptance of today's supercomputers. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are ideally suited to solve this dilemma. Indeed global players like Google, Intel, HP or IBM are now going for optical interconnects based on VCSELs. The required bandwidth per link, however, is fixed by the architecture of the data center. According to Google, a bandwidth of 40 Gb/s has to be accommodated. We recently realized ultra-high speed VCSELs suited for optical interconnects in data centers with record-high performance. The 980-nm wavelength was chosen to be able to realize densely-packed, bottom-emitting devices particularly advantageous for interconnects. These devices show error-free transmission at temperatures up to 155°C. Serial data-rates of 40 Gb/s were achieved up to 75° C. Peltier-cooled devices were modulated up to 50 Gb/s. These results were achieved from the sender side by a VCSEL structure with important improvements and from the receiver side by a receiver module supplied by u2t with some 30 GHz bandwidth. The novel VCSELs feature a new active region, a very short laser cavity, and a drastically improved thermal resistance by the incorporation of a binary bottom mirror. As these devices might be of industrial interest we had the epi-growth done by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition at IQE Europe. Consequently, the devices were fabricated using a three-inch wafer process, and the apertures were formed by proprietary in-situ controlled selective wet oxidation. All device data were measured, mapped and evaluated by our fully automated probe station. Furthermore, these devices enable record-efficient data-transmission beyond 30 Gb/s, which is crucial for green photonics.

We are able to manage large waveguide dispersion and slow light in Bragg reflector waveguides where light is confined with OMNI mirrors. We proposed and demonstrated slow light modulators, slow light detectors, optical gates and slow light switches with a Bragg reflector waveguide, which gives us size reduction using a slow light effect. Our VCSEL-based structure with slowing light gives us various unique features such as polarization independence, low power consumption, the integration capability with VCSELs and so on. In this paper, we will review our recent research activities on VCSEL-based slow light devices, including miniature optical switches, modulators, amplifiers and beam scanners.

The current injection GaN-based vertical cavity surface emitting lasers with hybrid mirrors have demonstrated the CW operation at room temperature. The laser hybrid cavity composes of a 29-pair high-reflectivity AlN/GaN bottom DBR, a 7-lamda cavity region, and a 10-pair SiO2/Ta2O5 dielectric DBR. The laser structure has utilized a thin ITO layer of 30 nm as the transparent conducting layer, combining with a thin heavily doped p-type InGaN contact layer to reduce the optical loss while maintaining good current spreading capability. The laser has typical emission wavelength around 412 nm with a threshold current of about 9.7 mA at room temperature. Further details of the laser design and performance characteristics are described.

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) have emerged as a promising candidate for pumping of solid-state lasers, as they can be configured into high-power two-dimensional arrays and modules of arrays. VCSELs emit in a circular, uniform beam which can greatly reduce the complexity and cost of coupling optics. Their narrow and stable emission spectrum is well suited to the narrow absorption spectrum generally observed for solid-state gain media. The superior reliability of VCSELs greatly enhances the robustness of solid-state laser systems and enables high-temperature operation. In this work, we discuss recent developments on kW-class VCSEL pumps for solid-state lasers. Results on VCSEL modules designed for end-pumping and for side-pumping are presented. More than 4kW in CW operation is demonstrated from a multi-array VCSEL module. We also present results on solid-state lasers using VCSEL modules as pumps. In an end-pumping configuration, more than 250W peak power at 1064nm is demonstrated, and in a sidepumping Q-switched configuration, more than 21mJ at 946nm is demonstrated for an Nd:YAG solid-state laser.

Long-wavelength VCSELs with emission wavelengths beyond 1.3 μm have seen a remarkable progress over the last decade. This success has been accomplished by using highly advanced device concepts which effectively overcome the fundamental technological drawbacks related with long-wavelength VCSELs such as inferior thermal properties and allow for the realization of lasers with striking device performance. In this presentation, we will give an overview on the state of the technology for long-wavelength VCSELs in conjunction with their opportunities in applications for optical sensing. While VCSELs based on InP are limited to maximum emission wavelengths around 2.3 μm, even longer wavelengths up to the mid-infrared range beyond 3 μm can be achieved with VCSELs based on GaSb. For near-infrared InP-based VCSELs, the output characteristics include sub-mA threshold currents, up to several milliwatts of singlemode output power and ultralow power consumption. New concepts for widely tunable VCSELs with tuning ranges up to 100 nm independent from the material system for the active region are also presented. Today, optical sensing by Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy is a fast emerging market. Gas sensing systems are used for a wide range of applications such as industrial process control, environmental monitoring and safety applications. With their inherent and compared to other laser types superior properties including enhanced current tuning rates, wavelength tuning ranges, modulation frequencies and power consumption, long-wavelength VCSELs are regarded as key components for TDLS applications.

High power VCSEL arrays can be used as a versatile illumination and heating source. They are widely scalable in power and offer a robust and economic solution for many new applications with moderate brightness requirements. The design of high power VCSEL arrays requires a concurrent consideration of mechanical, thermal, optical and electrical aspects. Especially the heat dissipation from the loss regions in the VCSEL mesas into the surrounding materials and finally towards the heat sink is discussed in detail using analytical and finite element calculations. Basic VCSEL properties can be separated from the calculation of thermal resistivity and only the latter depends on the details of array design. Guidelines are derived for shape, size and pitch of the VCSEL mesas in an array and optimized designs are presented. The electro-optical efficiency of the VCSELs and the material properties determine the operation point. A specific VCSEL design with the shape of elongated rectangles is discussed in more depth. The theoretical predictions are confirmed by measurements on practical modules of top-emitting structures as well as of bottom-emitting structures.

The demand for lasers with specific intensity distributions has led to the development of high power VCSEL systems. These consist of arrays of high power VCSELs combined with microlenses allowing for intensity distributions tailored to the needs of each specific application. A Shack-Hartmann based instrument has been developed for the measurement of these lenses in reflection as well as in transmission. In addition the form tools used for the microlens production can be measured with this set up. The comparison of measured surface profiles and optical properties with the particular design values then allows for optimization of the manufacturing process.

MEMS tunable vertical cavity surface emitting laser (MEMS-VCSEL) development, over the past two decades, has primarily focused on communications and spectroscopic applications. Because of the narrow line-width, single-mode operation, monolithic fabrication, and high-speed capability of these devices, MEMS-VCSELs also present an attractive optical source for emerging swept source optical coherence tomography (SSOCT) systems. In this paper, we describe the design and performance of broadly tunable MEMS-VCSELs targeted for SSOCT, emphasizing 1310nm operation for cancer and vascular imaging. We describe the VCSEL structure and fabrication, employing a fully oxidized GaAs/AlxOy mirrors in conjunction with dielectric mirrors and InP-based multi-quantum well active regions. We also describe the optimization of MEMs speed and frequency response for SSOCT. Key results include 1310 nm VCSELs with >120nm dynamic tuning range and imaging rates near 1MHz, representing the widest VCSEL tuning range and some of the fastest swept source imaging rates thus far obtained. We also describe how low-noise semiconductor optical amplification boosts average optical power to the required levels, while maintaining superior OCT imaging quality and state of the art system sensitivity. Finally, we present measured multi-centimeter dynamic coherence length, and discuss the implications of VCSELs for OCT.

We present a compact, portable and low cost generic interrogation strain sensor system using a fibre Bragg grating configured in transmission mode with a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) light source and a GaAs photodetector embedded in a polymer skin. The photocurrent value is read and stored by a microcontroller. In addition, the photocurrent data is sent via Bluetooth to a computer or tablet device that can present the live data in a real time graph. With a matched grating and VCSEL, the system is able to automatically scan and lock the VCSEL to the most sensitive edge of the grating. Commercially available VCSEL and photodetector chips are thinned down to 20 μm and integrated in an ultra-thin flexible optical foil using several thin film deposition steps. A dedicated micro mirror plug is fabricated to couple the driving optoelectronics to the fibre sensors. The resulting optoelectronic package can be embedded in a thin, planar sensing sheet and the host material for this sheet is a flexible and stretchable polymer. The result is a fully embedded fibre sensing system - a photonic skin. Further investigations are currently being carried out to determine the stability and robustness of the embedded optoelectronic components.

This paper reviews research and development of 1060nm VCSELs at Furukawa Electric. We pursue the simultaneous realization of three strong demands for low power consumption, high reliability, and high speed. For this purpose, we have chosen compressively strained InGaAs/GaAs active layers emitting in a 1060 nm wavelength range because of their advantages of lower threshold voltage, smaller defect propagation velocity, and larger material differential gain, compared to those of GaAs/AlGaAs active layers widely used in 850 nm VCSELs. Oxide-confined and double intracavity structures provide low and stable electrical resistance as well as low optical loss. The developed VCSELs exhibited low threshold currents of 0.31 mA at 25 °C and 0.56 mA at 90 °C, together with highly uniform slope efficiency distributions throughout a wafer. We also demonstrated 10 Gbps error free transmission at a very low bias current of 1.4 mA, yielding low power dissipation operation of 0.14 mW/Gbps. Clear eye openings up to 20 Gbps were confirmed at a low bias current of 3mA. A series of endurance tests and accelerated aging tests on nearly 5000 VCSELs have proved Telcordia qualified high reliability and a very low failure rate of 30 FIT/channel at an operating temperature of 40 °C and a bias current of 6mA, with a 90% confidential level.

Philips recently released a new VCSEL and photodiode product family for the fast growing FDR InfiniBand^TM generation. In this work we review the influence of production process variations on VCSEL characteristics, the FDR VCSEL transmission behavior as well as wear-out reliability characteristics. Data collected during an initial 15 wafers pilot production batch verify that FDR VCSEL manufacturing reached mature volume production level. The VCSEL for the next EDR (26Gbps) InfiniBand^TM generation is currently being developed at Philips. The paper presents characteristics of the first EDR VCSEL iteration.

This paper presents a review of recent work on high speed tunable and fixed wavelength vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) at Chalmers University of Technology. All VCSELs are GaAs-based, employ an oxide aperture for current and/or optical confinement, and emit around 850 nm. With proper active region and cavity designs, and techniques for reducing capacitance and thermal impedance, our fixed wavelength VCSELs have reached a modulation bandwidth of 23 GHz, which has enabled error-free 40 Gbps back-to-back transmission and 35 Gbps transmission over 100 m of multimode fiber. A MEMS-technology for wafer scale integration of tunable high speed VCSELs has also been developed. A tuning range of 24 nm and a modulation bandwidth of 6 GHz have been achieved, enabling error-free back-to-back transmission at 5 Gbps.

We summarize the properties of 850nm wavelength AlGaAs/GaAs-based transceiver chips, monolithically integrating vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) or PIN-type (p-doped-intrinsic-n-doped) photodiodes. Different chip designs enable half- and full-duplex bidirectional optical interconnection at multiple Gbit/s data rate over a single butt-coupled glass or polymer-clad optical fiber with core diameters ranging from 50 to 200 μm. The chips at both fiber ends are nominally identical and no external optics is required, which leads to lower cost in addition to volume and weight reduction. The commercial availability of such chips would directly enable applications in data communication and sensing networks in various environments such as automotive, home, industrial, in-building, or medical.

Record energy-efficient oxide-confined 850-nm single mode and quasi-single mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for optical interconnects are presented. Error-free performance at 17 Gb/s is achieved with record-low dissipated power of only 69 fJ/bit. The total energy consumption is only 93 fJ/bit. Transmission lengths up to 1 km of multimode optical fiber were achieved. Our commercial quasi-single mode devices achieve error-free operation at 25 Gb/s across up to 303 m of multimode fiber. To date our VCSELs are the most energy-efficient directly modulated light-sources at any wavelength for data transmission across all distances up to 1 km of multimode optical fiber.

Single mode (SM) 850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are suitable for error-free (bit error ratio <10^-12) data transmission at 17-25 Gb/s at distances ~2-0.6 km over 50μm-core multimode fiber (MMF). Reduced chromatic dispersion due to ultralow chirp of SM VCSELs under high speed modulation (up to 40 Gb/s) are responsible for the dramatic length extension. Good coupling tolerances of the SM devices to the MMF manifest their applicability for low cost optical interconnects. As the higher resonance frequency (up to 30 GHz) is reached at lower current densities in small aperture (3 μm -diameter) devices the SM devices are also preferable due to reliability considerations.

We have reduced the spectral width of high speed oxide confined 850 nm VCSELs using a shallow surface relief for suppression of higher order transverse modes. The surface relief acts as a mode filter by introducing a spatially varying and therefore mode selective loss. The VCSEL employs multiple oxide layers for reduced capacitance which leads to a strong index guiding and a large spectral width in the absence of a mode filter. With an appropriate choice of surface relief parameters, the RMS spectral width for a 5 μm oxide aperture VCSEL is reduced from 0.6 to 0.3 nm. The small signal modulation bandwidth is 19 GHz. Due to reduced effects of chromatic and modal fiber dispersion, the maximum error-free (bit-error-rate < 10^-12) transmission distance at 25 Gb/s over OM3+ fiber is increased from 100 to 500 m.

Simulation results for an etched air hole photonic crystal (PhC) vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) structure with various thicknesses of metal deposited inside the holes are presented. The higher-order modes of the structure are more spread out than the fundamental mode, and penetrate into the metal-filled holes. Due to the lossy nature of the metal, these higher-order modes experience a greater loss than the fundamental mode, resulting in an enhanced side mode suppression ratio (SMSR). A figure of merit for determining which metals would have the greatest impact on the SMSR is derived and validated using a transmission matrix method calculation. A full three-dimensional simulation of the PhC VCSEL structure is performed using the plane wave admittance method, and SMSRs are calculated for increasing metal thicknesses. Of the metals simulated, chromium provided the greatest SMSR enhancement with more than a 4 dB improvement with 500 nm of metal for an operating current of 12 times threshold.

The polarization-switching hysteresis loop (PSHL) in L-I curves of VCSELs was investigated under different temperatures. The experimental results demonstrate that the PSHL depend on temperature.

We present surface micro-machined tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) operating around 1550nm with tuning ranges up to 100nm and side mode suppression ratios beyond 40 dB. The output power reaches 3.5mW at 1555 nm. The electro-thermal and the electro-statical actuation of a micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) movable distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) membrane increases/decreases the cavity length which shifts the resonant wavelength of the cavity to higher/lower values. The wavelength is modulated with 200 Hz/120 kHz. Both tuning mechanisms can be used simultaneously within the same device. The newly developed surface micro-machining technology uses competitive dielectric materials for the MEMS, deposited with low temperature plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), which is cost effective and capable for on wafer mass production.

A simple and low-cost technology for tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with curved movable micromirror is presented. The micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) is integrated with the active optical component (so-called half-VCSEL) by means of surface-micromachining using a reflown photoresist droplet as sacrificial layer. The technology is demonstrated for electrically pumped, short-wavelength (850 nm) tunable VCSELs. Fabricated devices with 10 μm oxide aperture are singlemode with sidemode suppression >35 dB, tunable over 24 nm with output power up to 0.5mW, and have a beam divergence angle <6 °. An improved high-speed design with reduced parasitic capacitance enables direct modulation with 3dB-bandwidths up to 6GHz and error-free data transmission at 5Gbit/s. The modulation response of the MEMS under electrothermal actuation has a bandwidth of 400 Hz corresponding to switching times of about 10ms. The thermal crosstalk between MEMS and half-VCSEL is negligible and not degrading the device performance. With these characteristics the integrated MEMS-tunable VCSELs are basically suitable for use in reconfigurable optical interconnects and ready for test in a prototype system. Schemes for improving output power, tuning speed, and modulation bandwidth are briefly discussed.

We present a micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) emitting around 1.55 μm with single-mode output power of >2.5mW and high side-mode suppression-ratio (SMSR) of >50dB over the entire tuning range of >50nm. The small-signal modulation technique (S21) has been used to study intrinsic and parasitic influences on the modulation response of the device. Additionally, the static characteristics as well as electrical and thermal design of the device are discussed with respect to its high-speed modulation behavior. The tunable laser shows 3-dB direct modulation frequencies above 6.4 GHz.

We report on the development of 850-nm high-speed VCSELs optimized for low-power data transmission at cryogenic temperatures near 100 K. These VCSELs operate on the n=1 quantum well transition at cryogenic temperatures (near 100 K) and on the n=2 transition at room temperature (near 300 K) such that cryogenic cooling is not required for initial testing of the optical interconnects at room temperature. Relative to previous work at 950 nm, the shorter 850-nm wavelength of these VCSELs makes them compatible with high-speed receivers that employ GaAs photodiodes.

We report the investigation of the state of polarization (SOP) of a tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) operating near 850 nm with a mode-hop free single-mode tuning range of about 12 nm and an amplitude modulation bandwidth of about 5 GHz. In addition, the effect of a sub-wavelength grating on the device and its influence on the polarization stability and polarization switching has been investigated. The VCSEL with an integrated sub-wavelength grating shows a stable SOP with a polarization mode suppression ratio (PMSR) more than 35 dB during the tuning.

We present recent results on the integration of polymer microlenses on single mode Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) to achieve output beam control. We describe in particular low cost and collective fabrication methods developed to allow for a self-alignment of the lens with the laser source. These approaches are based either on surface tension effects or on a self-writing process using novel Near Infra-Red (NIR) photopolymers. Results on beam collimation at 850nm are presented and compared to a fully vectorial and three-dimensional optical model that takes into account the complete geometry of laser resonator is used. Results on short distance focusing using self-aligned microtips are presented. Considerations to achieve an active beam control by means of polymer-based MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical System) are also discussed. Potential applications may concern the improvement of VCSEL insertion in optical interconnects or sensing systems, as well as the fabrication of optical micro-probes for near-field microscopy.

We present an empirical thermal model for VCSELs based on extraction of temperature dependence of macroscopic VCSEL parameters from CW measurements. We apply our model to two, oxide-confined, 850-nm VCSELs, fabricated with a 9-μm inner-aperture diameter and optimized for high-speed operation. We demonstrate that for both these devices, the power dissipation due to linear heat sources dominates the total self-heating. We further show that reducing photon lifetime down to 2 ps drastically reduces absorption heating and improves device static performance by delaying the onset of thermal rollover. The new thermal model can identify the mechanisms limiting the thermal performance and help in formulating the design strategies to ameliorate them.

Detailed investigation of anomalous modal behavior in fabricated bottom-emitting intra-cavity contacted 960 nm range vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) have been performed. At low currents the broad-aperture VCSELs show multi-mode operation at 945 nm via whispering gallery-like modes. Subsequent increase of pump current results in rapid increase of fundamental mode intensity and switching to a pure single transverse mode lasing regime at 960 nm with the higher slope efficiency. As a result record single transverse mode output power of 15 mW with a side-mode-suppressionratio (SMSR) above 30 dB was achieved. The observed phenomena cannot be explained by oxide-index guiding or changes in current pumping. 2D heat transport simulations show a strong temperature gradient inside the microcavity due to an effective lateral heat-sinking. This creates an effective waveguide and results in lower optical losses for the fundamental mode. At fixed pump current in pulsed regime (pulse width < 400 ns) high-order modes dominate, however the subsequent increase of pulse width leads to a rapid rise of optical power for the fundamental mode and SMSR increasing. Thus the self-heating phenomena play a crucial role in observed VCSEL unusual modal behavior.

Vixar has recently developed VCSELs at 1850nm, a wavelength of interest for neural stimulation applications. This paper discusses the design and fabrication of these new long-wavelength lasers, and reports on the most recent performance results. The VCSELs are based on InP-compatible materials and incorporate highly strained InGaAs quantum wells to achieve 1850nm emission. Current confinement in the VCSEL is achieved by ion implantation, resulting in a planar fabrication process with a single epitaxial growth step. Continuous wave lasing is demonstrated for aperture sizes varying from 8 to 50μm with threshold currents of 1-17mA. The devices demonstrate peak power of 7mW at room temperature and CW operation up to 85°C.