Widely Tunable Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

In this work, the design and the manufacturing of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers for various emission wavelengths is discussed. The main focus is at InP-based material systems addressing the 1.3 to 2.3 µm emission range. As the lasers are expected to serve the demands of versatile applications like sensing and datacom, respectively, different laser designs being distinguished by different respective structural optimizations need to be accomplished. The new key-technologies offering an overall improvement in device performance are the short-cavity (SC) concept and the surface-micro-machining (SMM) technology regarding membrane integration. By combining these technologies world record values in high-power, high-speed and continuous wavelength tuning over a wide spectral range can be achieved at electrically pumped VCSEL structures.