A comparative study of the temperature dependence of lasing wavelength of conventional edge emitting stripe laser and vertical cavity surface emitting laser

Semiconductor lasers are the integral parts of optical communication systems. The temperature dependence of the lasing wavelength of a laser is an important issue because it is used in different environment with varying thermal conditions. In this paper, a comparative study of the temperature dependence of lasing wavelength of two types of laser diode has been presented. The comparison was made between an InGaAsP/InP stripe geometry edge-emitting laser and vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) with GaAs in the active region. For both cases, the temperature dependence was observed for different heat sink temperatures ranging from 20°C to 50°Cat an interval of 5°C for an operating current of 0.763A and 1.88mA respectively. The lasing wavelength shifts for stripe laser and VCSEL have been found to be 0.3nm/K and 0.06nm/K respectively. VCSEL exhibits significantly greater thermal stability than stripe laser. The result has also been elucidated with a comprehensive theoretical excerpt.