Interdiffused quantum wells for lateral carrier confinement in VCSELs

We show that it is necessary to eliminate carrier diffusion in the active region for viable vertical-cavity lasers (VCLs) with small dimensions. However, methods that work well in reducing lateral carrier leakage in narrow ridge-waveguide lasers such as silicon induced disordering may be problematic in VCL structures. Encouraging results from novel methods for impurity free intermixing for VCL applications are presented.