Vertical-External Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VECSELs) have attracted a lot of attention lately as new semiconductor sources because of their attributes such as high-power, circularly-symmetric output beam and their operating wavelength versatility. A special format of the VECSEL is the so-called microchip VECSEL (μ-VECSEL) in which a transparent heat-spreader bonded to the semiconductor chip is directly mirror-coated on its outer surface creating a plane-plane cavity. The μ-VECSEL is therefore an integrated version of the VECSEL with potential for volume production. However, to ensure stable single-mode operation a plano-concave cavity is preferable.
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