Tunnel injection active region in an oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

Data are presented on oxide-confined AlGaAs-GaAs-InGaAs VCSEL's that use high-index half-wave GaAs spacer layers and electronic tunnel injection and confinement. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of tunnel injection in a vertical-cavity laser. Threshold currents range from 344 μA for a 6.5-μm diameter device to 151 μA for a 1-μm diameter device. The relatively high threshold currents are attributed to a detuned cavity and higher order transverse-mode operation.