1-mW CW-RT monolithic VCSEL at 1.55 μm

We demonstrate the first result of a high-power (1 mW) continuous-wave room-temperature vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser emitting at 1.55 μm using a single InP substrate. The whole structure was grown monolithically using gas source molecular beam epitaxy and incorporates two original approaches. The first originality consists in the growth of a metamorphic GaAs-AlAs Bragg mirror directly on an InP-based cavity. The second novel idea is to use a tunnel junction for current injection. Moreover by using these two approaches the processing is very simple and, therefore, fulfills the goal for low-cost laser production in access and interconnections applications.