Materials issues for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) and edge emitting lasers (EEL)

摘要

Semiconductor edge emitting lasers (EELs) and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) have been around for a number of years, with first reports dating back to Hall et al. (1962) and Soda et al. (1979), respectively. First EELs and more recently VCSELs have become available commercially, finding many uses in data communication systems (near 850nm), telecommunication systems (at 1.3#mu#m and 1.55#mu#m), printers (in the visible region), compact disc players (near 780nm) and many other systems. Initially EELs and VCSELs were demonstrated using GaAs/AlGaAs and InGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs material systems, resulting in emission at 850 and 980nm, respectively. Since then other material systems, such as AlGaInP/GaInP, InGaAsP/InP, AlGaInAs/InP and InGaAsN have enabled performance in other regions of the spectrum.