High-speed modulation of 850-nm intracavity contacted shallow implant-apertured vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

GaAs-AlGaAs quantum-well (850 nm) vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, with lateral current injection and shallow implanted apertures, show small signal modulation bandwidths of at least 11 GHz and large signal data rates of at least 10 Gb/s. The devices achieved a maximum output power of 2.1 mW , with a threshold current and voltage of 1 mA and 1.71 V, respectively. Th e shallow implantation step provides photolithographically precise aperture formation (using O+ ions), for efficient lateral current injection into th e quantum-well active region of the laser, from intracavity contacts. The d evice aperture was 7 mum in diameter, and the opening in the annular top co ntact was 13 mum in diameter. The optical spectrum showed several transvers e modes.