A CW external-cavity surface-emitting laser

Room temperature, continuous wave (CW) operation of an external-cavity, optically-pumped surface-emitting laser is reported. The device is a resonant-periodic gain (RPG) vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with the top mirror stack replaced by an epitaxially grown antireflection (AR) coating. An external mirror having a 50-mm radius of curvature completes the resonator in a near hemispherical configuration. Mode spectra, input-output curves, and polarization properties of the device are presented.