Edge-emitting microlasers with one active layer of quantum dots

High performance edge-emitting microlasers with deeply etched distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) were fabricated on an AlGaAs-GaAs laser structure with a single GaInAs quantum dot (QD) active layer. Mirror reflectivities well above 90% were achieved by third-order narrow air-gap Bragg reflectors with /spl lambda//4 air-gaps. DBR lasers with 160-/spl mu/m-long cavities and cleaved mirrors on one side show differential efficiencies of 0.87 W/A and output powers of more than 50 mW at 980-nm emission wavelength in continuous wave (CW) operation at room temperature. With deeply etched DBRs on both sides of the cavity CW operating microlasers with cavity lengths down to 16 /spl mu/m could be realized with a minimum threshold current of 1.2 mA for a 30-/spl mu/m cavity length. All lasers are emitting at the QD ground state at room temperature. Twenty-/spl mu/m-long devices show CW threshold currents of about 3 mA, output powers above 1 mW, and single mode emission with >25 dB sidemode suppression ratios. First, high-frequency measurements mere performed proving that these QD microlasers are well suited for large-scale integrated high-speed optical data processing with modulation frequencies well above 10 GHz.