Technology status and opportunities of VCSELs

Central to the photonic revolution is the development of miniature light sources such as the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Today, VCSEL manufacturing has been established to serve data and telecommunication applications. Moreover, recent progress in new materials, fabrication technologies, and microcavity physics has enabled a new generation of high performance VCSELs. We will overview the present and near-term commercial VCSELs as well as discuss recent research, including new device structures such as 2-dimensional VCSEL arrays, composite resonators, and photonic crystal devices.