Fabrication of high-packing-density vertical cavity surface-emitting laser arrays using selective oxidation

Abstract
We describe the nearly-planar processing of two-dimensional vertical cavity laser arrays based on the selective conversion of AlAs to Al/sub x/O/sub y/. The individual lasers of 8/spl times/8 and 2/spl times/2 arrays are defined by native Al/sub x/O/sub y/ to achieve 4-/spl mu/m square active regions on 12-/spl mu/m center-to-center spacings. Interelement thermal coupling is characterized along with the optical mode structure.