Transverse junction vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

Abstract
An all‐epitaxial, transverse‐junction GaAs/AlGaAs vertical‐cavity surface‐emitting laser (TJ‐VCSEL) incorporating wavelength‐resonant periodic gain is reported. Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition is used for epitaxial growth of a structure containing five GaAs quantum wells. The simple p+pn+ transverse junction is fabricated using reactive ion etching and diffusion techniques. Contacts are situated on the wafer surface resulting in a nearly planar structure. The device exhibits a room‐temperature threshold of 48 mA (pulsed) and a resolution‐limited spectral width of 0.11 nm at a 855.8 nm lasing wavelength.