Cryogenic performance of double-fused 1.5-μm vertical cavity lasers

Author

Zhang, Y.M. ; Piprek, J. ; Margalit, N. ; Anzlowar, M. ; Bowers, J.

Author_Institution

Conductus Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA

Volume

17

Issue

3

fYear

1999

fDate

3/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

503

Lastpage

508

Abstract

The low-temperature performance of vertical cavity lasers (VCL´s) is of interest for high-speed data transmission from superconducting and cryogenic semiconductor circuits. Our double-fused 1.5 μm lasers employ a strain-compensated InGaAsP-InP multiquantum-well (MQW) active region that is sandwiched between two AlGaAs-GaAs distributed Bragg reflectors. Continuous wave (CW) lasing at ambient temperature as low as 7 K is measured on the same type of top-emitting devices that previously lased at a record-high temperature of 337 K. The optimum temperature is found at 180 K giving minimum threshold current, maximum modulation bandwidth of 5 GHz, and more than 3 GHz/mA^1/2 modulation current efficiency. The optimum temperature agrees very well with the theoretical prediction. Further device optimization for cryogenic high-speed applications is discussed in detail

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; cryogenics; distributed Bragg reflector lasers; electro-optical modulation; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; indium compounds; infrared sources; laser transitions; optical transmitters; quantum well lasers; 1.5 mum; 180 K; 337 K; 5 GHz; 7 K; AlGaAs-GaAs; AlGaAs/GaAs distributed Bragg reflectors; CW lasing; DBR lasers; InGaAsP-InP; cryogenic high-speed applications; cryogenic performance; cryogenic semiconductor circuits; device optimization; double-fused 1.5-μm vertical cavity lasers; high-speed data transmission; low-temperature performance; maximum modulation bandwidth; minimum threshold current; modulation current efficiency; optimum temperature; record-high temperature; strain-compensated InGaAsP/InP MQW active region; superconducting semiconductor circuits; top-emitting devices; Bandwidth; Circuits; Cryogenics; Current measurement; Data communication; Distributed Bragg reflectors; Quantum well devices; Semiconductor lasers; Temperature; Threshold current;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.749392

Filename

749392