Novel Epitaxial Growth Technologies for Long-Wavelength (1.1-1.5 micron) Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers and Optical Switches for High- Performance Optical Information Networks

摘要

The goal of this research program is to develop novel techniques for the epitaxial growth and fabrication of vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser structures with lasing wavelengths in the 1.1-1.5 micron regime. Special emphasis will be on the realization of 1300 nm VCSELs and monolithic VCSEL arrays that are useful for the parallel optical data links that will interconnect future computer networks, whose nodes may be distributed across a wide range of distances and are interconnected by optical fibers. The 1300 nm VCSELs will provide improved fiber transmission performance as well as a more unified technology platform for the different levels of the interconnection heirarchy. One goal is to design and demonstrate a practical 1300 nm VCSEL structure that can be grown by a single epitaxial growth on a convention, high quality GaAs substrate. These structures will use InGaAsN quantum wells, as well as GaAs/AlAs distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirrors with a large index difference, which reduces the total thickness to a tractable level that makes a single-growth approach possible. In this program, we will develop an optimum device design for the fabrication of these VCSEL structures, and we will integrate them into monolithic arrays. We will evaluate the performance of the VCSELs in parallel optical links as well as in VCSEL-based optical switching networks.