Modulation properties of high-speed vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) are expected to achieve large modulation bandwidths at low drive currents, resulting from their small active volume. However, the high speed performance is currently limited by the parasitic capacitance and resistance of these devices. The small signal modulation and large signal dynamic characteristics are reported for an oxide-confined VCSEL in which the structure has been optimized to reduce these parasitics.