Single-Mode, High-Speed, and High-Power Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers at 850 nm for Short to Medium Reach (2 km) Optical Interconnects

The vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with high single-mode (narrow linewidth) output power are essential to minimize chromatic dispersion and to further improve the bit-rate distance product in a multimode fiber, which has a significant propagation loss (similar to 3.5 dB/km) at 850 nm wavelength. Here, we demonstrate the detailed design considerations and fabrication of a single-mode, high-power, and high-speed VCSELs at the 850 nm wavelength with oxide-relief and Zn-diffusion apertures for the application of short (0.3 km) to medium reach (2 km) optical interconnects. By optimizing the relative geometric sizes between two such apertures in our demonstrated 850-nm VCSELs, we can not only attain high single-mode output power (similar to 6.5 mW), but also with a reasonable threshold current (< 2.0 mA). Furthermore, the spatial hole burning effect induced low-frequency roll off can also be minimized in our optimized structure to obtain a maximum data rate up to 26 Gbit/s. The record-high bit rate-distance products for OM4 MMF transmission under ON-OFF keying (14 Gbit/s x 2.0 km) modulation formats have been successfully demonstrated by the use of our VCSEL.