Vertical cavity surface emitting laser for operation at 1.5 um with integral AlGaInAs/InP Bragg mirrors

The design and performance of a low threshold selectively oxidized vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) fabricated for operation at a wavelength of 1.55/spl mu/m is based on III-V quaternary semiconductor alloys and is grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Experimentally, the average threshold current measured for this design, with a 7/spl mu/m device was 3mA. The comparison of the above parameters and calculations with other reported experimental results for the VCSELs lasing at 1.55/spl mu/m showed that devices with strained MQW perform slightly better than the investigated laser, they have lower threshold current densities and transparency current densities, but the external quantum efficiencies are about the same as in this work. However, because of the optimization of the quaternary alloy parameters used in the VCSEL design, its characteristics are estimated to be better than other VCSELs with unstrained MQW active regions.