High wall-plug efficiency temperature-insensitive vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with low-barrier p-type mirrors

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Abstract
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are promising candidates as efficient sources for optical fiber communication due to their high efficiency coupling to fibers, single longitudinal mode operation, and ability to be integrated as arrays on a single chip. The best overall measurement of practical device performance is the wall-plug efficiency, defined as total optical power out divided by total electrical power in. The theoretical mechanisms that effect the wall-plug efficiency of VCSELs will be analyzed and discussed, especially the trade- off between differential efficiency and threshold current. Experimentally, modifications of the growth structure which improve wall-plug efficiency have been implemented. The drive voltage has been reduced and the optical loss is also decreased by using lower barrier p-type Al0.67Ga0.33As/GaAs mirrors with special interface gradings. Also, by offsetting the quantum- well gain peak from the cavity mode, the gain overlap is optimized at the true active-region operating temperature (above room-temperature). These effects combine to yield a peak CW room- temperature wall-plug efficiency of 17.3%.

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