Bias-free 1-Gb/s data transmission using top vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diodes

Slightly elliptically shaped high-performance InGaAs (/spl lambda/=980 mn) oxide-confined, top vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL's) with stable linearly polarized output are used to transmit 1 Gb/s pseudorandom bit sequences with 2/sup 31/-1 wordlength under bias-free current modulation over 1.5 km of graded index multimode fiber. Although a turn-on delay of 400 ps is observed the received power for a bit-error rate of 10/sup -11/ is as low as -27 dBm including 2 dB penalty due to fiber dispersion.