Pulse operation and threshold characteristics of 1.55-μm InAlGaAs-InAlAs VCSELs

All-monolithic air-post index-guided vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers have been demonstrated under pulsed electrical injection at room temperature. The structure grown in single step by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition employs InP lattice matched InAlAs/InAlGaAs Bragg mirrors and a 2/spl lambda/-thick periodic gain active region with 15 InGaAs quantum wells (QWs). We report threshold current characteristics of these devices grown on a 2-in wafer with wide emission wavelength range of 1.51/spl sim/1.59 μm. For the devices larger than 30-μm in diameter, we found the minimum threshold current density of /spl sim/2.93 kA/cm² at the emission wavelength of 1.57 μm, corresponding to about 20 nm wavelength offset between photoluminescence peak of InGaAs QWs and resonant cavity wavelength.