29 GHz directly modulated 980 nm vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers with bow-tie shape transverse coupled cavity

A concept for the bandwidth enhancement of directly modulated vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) using a transverse-coupled-cavity (TCC) scheme is proposed, which enables us to tailor the modulation-transfer function. A bow-tie shaped oxide aperture forms the transverse-coupled cavity resulting in optical feedback to boost the modulation speed. While the bandwidth of conventional VCSELs is 9-10 GHz, the 3 dB-bandwidth of the TCC VCSEL is increased by a factor of 3 far beyond the relaxation-oscillation frequency. The maximum bandwidth is currently limited by the photo-detector used in the experiment. Clear 36 Gbps eye opening was attained with an extinction ratio of 4 dB. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.