4502
12, DECEMBER 2006
Recent Advances of VCSEL Photonics
Fumio Koyama, Senior Member, IEEE
Invited Paper
Abstract—A vertical-cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) was
invented 30 years ago. A lot of unique features can be expected,
such as low-power consumption, wafer-level testing, small pack-
aging capability, and so on. The market of VCSELs has been
growing up rapidly in recent years, and they are now key devices
in local area networks using multimode optical fibers. Also, long
wavelength VCSELs are currently attracting much interest for
use in single-mode fiber metropolitan area and wide area network
applications. In addition, a VCSEL-based disruptive technology
enables various consumer applications such as a laser mouse and
laser printers. In this paper, the recent advance of VCSEL pho-
tonics will be reviewed, which include the wavelength extension
of single-mode VCSELs and their wavelength integration/control.
Also, this paper explores the potential and challenges for new
functions of VCSELs toward optical signal processing.
Index Terms—Crystal growth, high-speed modulation, laser
array, microelectromechanical system (MEMS), optical signal
processing, semiconductor laser, surface emitting laser, tunable
laser, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM).
I. I NTRODUCTION
A VERTICAL-CAVITY surface emitting laser (VCSEL)
was invented by Prof. Emeritus K. Iga of Tokyo Institute
of Technology in 1977 [1], [2]. The first lasing operation [3] and
low threshold operation with microcavity [4] were obtained in
1979 and in 1987, respectively. His long-term and innovative
research triggered worldwide research on VCSELs and formed
the research community of VCSEL-based photonics [1]. The
research history and principal references on VCSELs in wide
spectral regions can be seen in [1]. After the room temperature
continuous wave (CW) operation of GaAs VCSELs [5] and
the demonstration of submilliampere microlasers [6], VCSEL
research was accelerated for reducing threshold current and in-
creasing efficiencies [7]. In particular, significant performance
advances were achieved in oxide-confined VCSELs [8] which
incorporate buried oxide apertures [9] for electrical and optical
confinement. Oxide-confined VCSELs gave us a significant
threshold reduction [8], [10] and high power-conversion effi-
ciencies of over 50% [11], [12].
Manuscript received July 25, 2006; revised September 29, 2006. This work
was supported in part by the Grant-in-Aid for Creative Scientific Research from
the Ministry of Education, Science, Sport, and Culture under Grant 14GS0212.
The author is with the Microsystem Research Center, Precision and
Intelligence Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama 226-8503,
Japan (e-mail: koyama@pi.titech.ac.jp).
Color versions of Figs. 1–5, 9–13, and 16–20 are available online at
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JLT.2006.886064
0733-8724/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO.
A lot of unique features have been proven:
1) low power consumption;
2) high-speed modulation with low driving current;
3) large-scale two-dimensional (2-D) array;
4) narrow circular beam for direct fiber coupling;
5) low cost and small packaging capability;
6) single longitudinal mode operation with vertical micro-
cavity;
7) on-wafer wavelength control;
8) continuous wavelength tuning with electromechanical
system;
9) wafer level testing for low-cost manufacturing.
Gigabit Ethernet and fiber channel are currently major mar-
kets for VCSELs. Also, VCSEL-based 10-G Ethernet mod-
ules are now ready for practical systems. Commercial 850-nm
GaAs VCSELs have been well established for these short reach
applications. On the other hand, the room temperature CW
operation of a long wavelength VCSEL was realized in 1993
[13]. Long wavelength VCSELs emitting at 1200–1330-nm
wavelength are currently attracting much interest for use
in single-mode fiber metropolitan area and wide area net-
works. Various materials have been proposed and demonstrated
for long wavelength VCSELs, which include highly strained
GaInAs/GaAs quantum waves (QWs) [14]–[19], GaInAs
quantum dots (QDs) [20], [21], GaAsSb QW [22]–[24],
GaInNAs [25]–[36], and GaAlInAs/InP QWs [37]–[47]. Low-
cost and high-performance VCSELs emitting at 1.3 µm may
drive significant cost reduction in high-speed links of over
several kilometers with single-mode fibers.
High-speed modulation performances have also been demon-
strated [48]–[50] and the highest modulation speed reached
at 25 Gb/s for GaInAs VCSELs [51]. High data throughput
and high interconnection densities are becoming important
for high-end computing systems. Optical interconnection is
a good candidate for avoiding bottlenecks in next-generation
supercomputers. The development of high-speed VCSELs has
been involved in the Japanese government project on the next
generation supercomputer “KEISOKU.”
For higher data rates beyond 10 Gb/s, a wavelength division
multiplexing (WDM) technology would be an alternative, even
in short reach systems. There are various ways to control the
lasing wavelength in VCSELs; a multiple-wavelength inte-
grated VCSEL array is a good candidate for short-reach WDM
applications. A 2-D multiple-wavelength VCSEL array was
first realized using an inherent beam flux gradient in molecular
beam epitaxy (MBE) growth [52]. When we use metal–organic
chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on a patterned substrate,
KOYAMA: RECENT ADVANCES OF VCSEL PHOTONICS 4503

the local gradient of the chemical species in the gas phase

changes the growth rate. The epitaxial growth of GaAs and
AlGaAs on a nonplanar GaAs substrate has been developed,
and an MOCVD grown multiwavelength VCSEL array was
demonstrated based on this technique [53]. Several reports on
multiple-wavelength VCSELs emitting at 850 and 980 nm have
been presented [54]–[56]. An ultrahigh capacity chip-to-chip
optical interconnect based on WDM VCSEL technologies has
been developed in the Terabus project [57]. The data rate is up
to 20 Gb/s with 48 channels (four wavelengths × 12 parallel
channels), leading to a bit rate approaching 1 Tb/s.
On the other hand, microelectromechanical-system-based
tunable filters and tunable VCSELs [58]–[62] are attracting
much interest because of their unique features, such as wide
continuous tuning, polarization insensitive operation, and 2-D Fig. 1. Schematic structure of GaInAs/GaAs VCSEL [78].
array integration. Wide continuous wavelength tuning has been
demonstrated when electrostatic force is used for moving a
cantilever structure in micromachined filters and VCSELs.
All-optical signal processing using VCSELs has recently
been investigated for future photonic networks. Optical injec-
tion locking is very useful for reducing chirp and for extending
the modulation bandwidth [63]. We are also able to obtain a
nonlinear transfer function, which can be used for all-optical
signal processing. The injection locking of VCSELs has been
examined theoretically and experimentally [64]–[66]. It was
shown that a variety of interesting nonlinear behaviors was ob-
served, which was dependent on injection power and frequency
detuning. All-optical format conversion was demonstrated Fig. 2. Band diagram of highly strained GaInAs/GaAs QWs and
using a polarization switching in a VCSEL [67]. In this case, GaInAsP/InP QWs.
a complex configuration is required to control the polarization
state of the input signal. Transverse mode switching proper- grown by MOCVD was carried out up to 1.2 µm, and the
ties in an 850-nm VCSEL induced by optical injection were gain-offset enables lasing wavelengths of 1.3 µm [18], [19].
investigated experimentally [68]. An all-optical inverter was An advantage for highly strained GaInAs QW lasers is no
demonstrated by using a two-mode VCSEL with the fundamen- noticeable penalty in crystal quality and their good tempera-
tal and first-high-order modes [69]. Also, a new function for ture characteristics [73]–[77]. We demonstrated low threshold
high-speed polarization controller was proposed [70]. Another current density operations of highly strained GaInAs/GaAs
interesting application of a VCSEL structure for optical signal QW lasers emitting at nearly 1.2-µm wavelength [76], [77].
processing is to control the phase and the group delay of light. We introduced a strained buffer layer and established growth
Very recently, tunable ultraslow light in a 1550-nm VCSEL conditions in MOCVD, enabling us to grow highly strained
amplifier was demonstrated [71]. Also, a novel optical phase layers with a strain of over 3% [74]. The photoluminescence
shifter was proposed [72], and the intensity-dependent phase (PL) wavelength of grown GaInAa QWs could be extended over
shift is induced by photocarriers in a resonant cavity saturable 1.2 µm without any degradation in crystal quality.
absorber, which would enable us to control the transient chirp The schematic structure of long wavelength single-mode
and to compensate fiber nonlinearities in the optical domain. VCSELs on a GaAs substrate is shown in Fig. 1 [78]. The ac-
In this paper, the recent advance of VCSEL photonics tive region consists of 8-nm-thick Ga0.66 In0.34 As/GaAs triple-
will be reviewed. We present the wavelength engineering of quantum wells surrounded by a GaAs spacer layer to form
VCSELs for use in high-speed short reach applications, which an m-cavity. The n-type distributed Bragg reflector (DBR)
include the wavelength extension of single-mode VCSELs, the consists of 35-pair Al0.8 Ga0.2 As/GaAs doped with Se grown
wavelength integration, and the wavelength stabilization based at 695 ◦ C. The p-type DBR consists of 22 pair C-doped
on fully monolithic technologies. The potential and challenges Al0.8 Ga0.2 As/GaAs. The grown samples were dry-etched by
for new functions of VCSELs will be discussed toward optical inductively coupled plasma etching to form the 30 × 30-µm
signal processing. square mesas. We formed 4 × 4-µm oxide apertures by AlAs
wet-oxidation process. We fabricated highly strained GaInAs
QW VCSELs either on (100) or (311)B GaAs substrates
II. W AVELENGTH E XTENSION OF GaInAs/GaAs
[15], [78]. We could expect excellent temperature character-
VCSEL S ON GaAs S UBSTRATE
istics due to the deep potential well of this material system,
Highly strained GaInAs QW VCSELs have been developed, as shown in Fig. 2. A characteristic temperature T0 of
covering a wide wavelength window of 1.0–1.3 µm [14]–[19]. GaInAs/GaAs QW edge-emitting lasers is over 200 K, which
The wavelength extension of highly strained GaInAs QWs is the highest at the 1.2–1.3-µm wavelength band. We achieved
4504
Fig. 3. Temperature dependences of L/I characteristic of 1.13-µm GaInAs
VCSELs [78].
a low threshold current of below 1 mA, high-temperature
operation of up to 450 K, and high reliability of > 2000 h [15].
This device was grown on a GaAs (311)B substrate, showing a
large orthogonal polarization suppression ratio of 30 dB, while
VCSELs on a (100) substrate show polarization switching.
The maximum single-mode output power is over 3 mW. The
threshold and slope efficiency are almost unchanged up to
75 ◦ C, as shown in Fig. 3 [78]. The extension of the emission
wavelength up to 1.2 µm enables high-speed data transmission
in single-mode fibers. While there is a difficulty in use for
installed single-mode fibers because of their standardization, a
high-performance 1.2-µm VCSEL would be a good candidate
for newly installed short reach systems. We carried out single-
mode-fiber data transmission experiments using our GaInAs
VCSELs. We found that the negative dispersion of a fiber is
helpful for short pulse transmission with the frequency chirp of
a VCSEL [79]. The result shows a potential of highly strained
GaInAs VCSELs for use in high-capacity networks beyond
10 Gb/s. Another important aspect of the GaInAs/GaAs QW
VCSEL is a prospect for reliability. The Al-free GaInAs/GaAs
quantum well would be preferable for an active layer due to its
indium-suppressed dislocation motion [51].
An important question arises: Can we avoid an optical isola-
tor in single-mode VCSEL modules? The feedback sensitivity
for single-mode VCSELs is particularly important while no
noticeable optical feedback noise can be seen for multimode
VCSELs. It is needed to realize isolator-free operations for
avoiding an optical isolator in low-cost modules. There have
been several reports on optical feedback sensitivity for long-
wavelength VCSELs [80]–[84]. We measured the relative in-
tensity noise of a fabricated single-mode GaInAs/GaAs VCSEL
under optical feedback. Fig. 4 shows the BER for 10-Gb/s data
transmission over 5 km of a standard SMF with and without op-
tical feedback [81]. We could see no noticeable power penalty
due to the optical feedback effect. We demonstrated 10-Gb/s
data transmission with an optical feedback of −24 dB at
75 ◦ C. A power penalty is below 1 dB for a feedback level
of −24 dB. While a further increase in optical feedback up to
−16 dB results in difficulties of error-free data transmission, we
pointed out that it is very effective for improving the feedback
sensitivity to increase the relaxation oscillation frequency [82].
Recently, a 10-Gb/s error-free single-mode fiber transmission
was demonstrated using a 1.3-µm InP-based VCSEL under
strong optical reflection (−13 dB) and without an optical
isolator by increasing the relaxation oscillation frequency over
10 GHz [84].
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2006
Fig. 4. Bit error rates of 10 Gb/s, 5-km transmission with and without optical
feedback for 1.1-µm VCSEL [81].
Fig. 5. Multiple wavelength VCSEL array.
III. W AVELENGTH I NTEGRATION AND C ONTROL
A. Wavelength Control on Patterned Substrate
The on-wafer wavelength control can be realized by grading
the epitaxial layer thickness of a single-mode VCSEL struc-
ture. Fig. 5 shows the schematic of a multiple wavelength
VCSEL array. Two-dimensional multiple-wavelength VCSEL
arrays were first realized using an inherent beam flux gradient
in MBE growth [52]. When we use MOCVD on a patterned
substrate, the local gradient of the chemical species in the
gas phase changes the growth rate [85]. The first MOCVD
grown multiwavelength VCSEL array was demonstrated based
on this technique [53]. Several reports on multiple-wavelength
VCSELs emitting at 850 and 980 nm have been presented
[54]–[56]. Yang et al. reported the maximum wavelength span
of 57 nm in a 980-nm band VCSEL array [56].
The schematic structure of a multiple-wavelength VCSEL
array on a patterned substrate is illustrated in Fig. 6 [86]. The
spatial modulation on growth rates in MOCVD enables the
wavelength control of VCSEL arrays. In the case of nonplanar
growth of MOCVD, the local gradient of the chemical species
in the gas phase increases (decreases) the growth rate on mesas
(in channels). Thus, the resonant wavelength is longer (shorter)
on mesas (in channels). Also, the gain peak wavelength of quan-
tum wells also becomes longer (shorter) simultaneously, due
to the well thickness variation. In addition, a ternary GaInAs
quantum well enables wider wavelength variation than GaAs
quantum well, because the composition modulation occurs by
the difference in a diffusion coefficient between the gallium and
the indium source in the gas phase.
KOYAMA: RECENT ADVANCES OF VCSEL PHOTONICS
Fig. 6. Densely integrated multiwavelength GaInAs/GaAs VCSEL array [86].
Fig. 7. Lasing spectra of 20 channel multiwavelength VCSEL array on a
patterned substrate [86].
B. Fabrication and Lasing Characteristics of
Multiwavelength VCSEL Array
A suitable tapered pattern shape was designed to give us
densely integrated multiple wavelength VCSEL arrays [86]. All
of the stripes were formed along the (011) crystal direction.
A patterned substrate was prepared by standard photolithogra-
phy followed by wet etching prior to the growth. The VCSEL
structure is the same as Fig. 1, except it is a patterned substrate.
The resonant wavelength was linearly graded by changing the
widths of grooves and ridges at the same time. The width of
grooves changes from 107 to 189 µm. The height of ridges is
5 µm. A 20-channel VCSEL array was formed in a groove.
We formed 3-µm oxide apertures by the AlAs wet-oxidation
process. This linear array consists of 20 channels with a 50-µm
pitch. Fig. 6 shows the photograph of a fabricated multiple
wavelength VCSEL array. The threshold current is 0.52 ±
0.1 mA. All VCSELs exhibit an output power of over 1.2 mW
and show uniform characteristics. Fig. 7 shows the lasing spec-
tra of the fabricated multiple-wavelength VCSEL array at a bias
current of 1.5 mA. All VCSELs in a linear array exhibit single-
mode operation with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of
> 30 dB. The wavelength ranges from 1012.1 to 1026.6 nm
with an average wavelength separation of 0.8 nm. However,
there remain some deviations in the wavelength separation.
4505
There may be some important issues in this result. Because
of the small size of a groove, a growth rate is dependent not
only on the width of the groove but also on that of neighboring
channels. The second issue is the self-heating effect. The lasing
wavelength is dependent on the chip temperature. Uniformity
in thermal resistances and power consumptions should be
considered. The last issue is a scale error in a pattern shape
during fabrication processes. Especially, the error in the depth
and the width of grooves seriously affects the deviation of the
lasing wavelengths. We expect that we are able to avoid these
difficulties, however, by improving fabrication processes.
C. Expansion of Lasing Wavelength Span
For realizing a multiple-wavelength VCSEL in a wide wave-
length span, it is necessary to control the gain peak shift and
resonant wavelength shift at the same time. The gain peak
shift of GaInAs/GaAs quantum wells is originated from the
change of the quantum well thickness and the In composition
modulation. On the other hand, the resonant wavelength shift
is proportional to the thickness variation of GaAs/AlAs DBRs.
It is a challenge to extend the wavelength span of the multiple
wavelength VCSEL array. We found that a main limiting factor
in expanding the wavelength span in arrays is the offset between
the gain peak and the resonant wavelength in an array. We
proposed a growth pressure control in epitaxial growth on
patterned substrates for further extension of lasing wavelength
span in arrays. The growth pressure of MOCVD influences a
diffusion constant of chemical species in gas phase [87]. The
diffusion constant is inversely proportional to the growth pres-
sure [88]. Therefore, a growth rate enhancement and reduction
on a patterned substrate can be controlled by changing the
growth pressure. The enhancement of growth rates is larger
under higher pressures. In order to expand the wavelength span
of arrays by decreasing the gain-resonance mismatching, it is
helpful to grow quantum wells under a higher pressure and to
grow DBRs under a lower pressure. The growth pressure was
controlled by changing a pump conductance, and the flow rate
of H2 carrier gas is also changed to obtain a good uniformity at
the same time.
We grew a VCSEL wafer on a patterned substrate under a
two-step growth pressure control [89]. We fabricated a VCSEL
structure, which was grown under two different growth pres-
sures of 24 and 200 torr. The height of the ridges is 15 µm. The
growth pressure is changed at the same time during a growth
interruption before and after the growth of quantum wells. The
bottom n-DBR was grown at 695 ◦ C at 24 torr, and the growth
was interrupted just before the quantum wells. After stabilizing
the pressure and temperature, we grew a GaAs barrier and
quantum wells at 540 ◦ C at 200 torr. We changed the growth
pressure and the temperature to 24 torr and 640 ◦ C, respectively,
to grow a p-DBR. Good crystal quality was obtained even under
variable growth pressures.
Fig. 8 shows the lasing spectra of a fabricated multi-
wavelength VCSEL array. We demonstrated a 0.96–1.16-µm
multiple-wavelength VCSEL array with highly strained
GaInAs/GaAs QWs, exhibiting a record wavelength span of
192 nm.
4506
Fig. 8. Lasing spectra of a multiple wavelength VCSEL array with a record
wavelength span of 192 nm [89].
Fig. 9. Schematic and photograph of electrothermally tunable VCSEL
array [90].
D. Electrothermal Tuning and Large-Scale Array Integration
There are still issues to be concerned in multiwavelength
VCSEL arrays, which are the scalability of multiwavelength
arrays and the precision control of the wavelength interval. We
demonstrated a 1.2-µm densely packed VCSEL array with an
electrothermal tuning contact for precise wavelength control.
Fig. 9 shows the top schematic structure and photograph of
a fabricated VCSEL array with two electrodes formed on the
p-DBR [90]. One electrode (p-electrode) is used for pumping,
and the other one (tuning electrode) is used for electrothermal
tuning. The tuning current between the tuning electrode and
the p-electrode causes heating of the cavity, resulting in con-
tinuous wavelength tuning. We expect low-power consumption
for wavelength tuning since the VCSEL shows a high thermal
resistance.
When the tuning current is 5 mA, the electric power con-
sumption is approximately 46 mW on the p-DBR. The maxi-
mum output power is 1.2 mW without tuning current. Fig. 10
shows the tuning characteristic at a fixed bias current of 4 mA
for tuning current ranging from 0 to 5 mA [90]. The device
exhibits single-mode operation with a SMSR of over 30 dB. A
continuous, electrothermal tuning of approximately 3 nm was
obtained. When we operate the VCSEL at a bias current of
3 mA, the deviation of output power is below 1 dB for wave-
length tuning of 3 nm. A tuning response is as fast as 100 ms
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2006
Fig. 10. Lasing spectra of tunable VCSEL for various tuning current [90].
Fig. 11. Lasing spectra of 110-channel VCSEL array [91].
in the tunable VCSEL because of the small thermal capacity of
the VCSEL.
We carried out large-scale integration of a multiwavelength
VCSEL array. A 110-channel VCSEL linear array was demon-
strated with a mesa size of 15 × 15 µm and a pitch of
20 µm [91]. The device exhibits single-mode operation with
an SMSR of over 38 dB. The lasing wavelength of a VCSEL
in the array for various CW operating current from 2.5 to
8.2 mA was measured at room temperature, showing continu-
ous wavelength tuning of over 9 nm by increasing the injection
current. The thermal crosstalk is an important issue, which
is discussed in [92]. Fig. 11 shows the lasing spectra of the
110-channel high-density VCSEL array under testing one by
one. The spatial grading of grown layers was partly used to
form a multiwavelength array. The wavelength spacing could
be precisely controlled to be 0.1 nm by adjusting the bias
current for each element. One hundred ten VCSELs could
be densely integrated in a 2.2-mm-long bar. The integration
density in space would be 100 times larger than conventional
edge-emitting lasers, showing a benefit of a small footprint in
VCSELs. We expect a 1.1–1.3 µm densely integrated multi-
wavelength VCSEL array for use in ultrahigh capacity short-
reach applications.
E. Wavelength Control With a Micromachined Structure
A micromachined VCSEL and filter with a thermal strain
control layer were proposed in [93]. Various unique features
can be expected in the tunable devices, which include wave-
length temperature insensitive operation, multiple-wavelength
array integration, thermal wavelength tuning with a low tuning
KOYAMA: RECENT ADVANCES OF VCSEL PHOTONICS
Fig. 12. Schematic structure of micromachined VCSEL and principle of
electrothermal wavelength tuning [94].
voltage, and so on [94]. Fig. 12 shows the schematic structure
of the micromachined GaAs/GaAlAs VCSEL with a controlled
temperature dependence [94]. The upper GaAlAs/GaAs DBR
is freely suspended above the substrate. An air gap is formed
between the upper and bottom GaAlAs/GaAs DBRs. The
structure is similar to that developed for tunable wavelength
VCSELs with a micromachined cantilever [58]. A difference
in the device is one additional thermal strain control layer
on the upper DBR with a smaller or larger thermal expan-
sion coefficient than the average expansion coefficient of the
GaAlAs/GaAs DBR. The principle for moving the cantilever
is shown in Fig. 12. When temperature increases, a microma-
chined cantilever moves up if the top thermal strain control
layer is GaAlAs with a smaller thermal expansion, while it
moves down if the top thermal strain control layer is GaAs
with a larger thermal expansion. This gives us either blue
shift or red shift of wavelength. This thermally tunable cavity
enables us to realize a temperature insensitive VCSEL/resonant
light emitter. When temperature increases, a micromachined
cantilever moves down because of thermal stress in the GaAs
stress control layer with a larger thermal expansion. This results
in athermal operations of VCSELs. We can freely control
the temperature dependence of the resonant wavelength of a
micromachined vertical cavity. An extremely low-temperature
dependence of below 0.0001 nm/K was predicted [38]. This is
700 times smaller than the temperature dependence of conven-
tional VCSELs.
A temperature-insensitive light emitter with a temperature-
insensitive design of a micromachined cantilever was demon-
strated [95]. An air gap was formed by using selective
oxidation of GaAlAs followed by selective wet etching and a
4507
Fig. 13. Measured resonant emission spectra of temperature insensitive emit-
ter for various temperatures [95].
drying process. The structure was grown on a GaAs (100) sub-
strate by low-pressure MOCVD. A 1-µm-thick Ga0.02 Al0.98 As
sacrificial layer was inserted between the upper and bottom
DBRs. The upper and bottom DBRs consist of a 20-pair and
36-pair Ga0.2 Al0.8 As/GaAs, respectively. The active layer
consists of three 8-nm-thick Ga0.8 In0.2 As quantum wells. A
top GaAs strain control layer is loaded on the upper DBR.
A 80-nm-thick Ga0.02 Al0.98 As layer was also inserted for mak-
ing oxide current confinement. The diameter of the oxide aper-
ture is 6 µm. The Alx Oy spacer layer formed by wet oxidation
was selectively removed by buffered HF to form a cantilever
structure. The length of a fabricated micromachined cantilever
was designed to be 120 µm for temperature-insensitive oper-
ations of emission wavelengths. Fig. 13 shows the resonant
emission spectra of a fabricated light emitter operating in a
temperature range of 20 ◦ C and 110 ◦ C [95]. The wavelength
shift is as small as 1.7 nm in the temperature range of 90 K. The
averaged temperature dependence is +0.015 nm/K in the entire
measured temperature range, which is five times smaller than
that of conventional single-mode VCSELs and 25 times smaller
than that of conventional Fabry–Pérot lasers. The proposed
concept may enable us to realize an athermal semiconductor
laser for avoiding a costly temperature controller. Very recently,
an athermal InP-based VCSEL was realized with a thermally
actuated cantilever structure [96]. The temperature dependence
is as low as 0.0016 nm/K, which is 50 times smaller than that
of conventional single-mode lasers.
IV. O PTICAL S IGNAL P ROCESSING W ITH
I NJECTION L OCKING
A. Optical Inverter for Optical Regeneration
In contrast to the optoelectronic regenerators, all-optical
regenerators have a potential for low-power consumption, as
well as simple and cost-effective configuration. An all-optical
inverter based on transverse mode switching in a two-mode
VCSEL was proposed, which has attractive features of low-
power consumption, dense packaging, and polarization insen-
sitivity [69]. The transverse mode switching is induced when
a first-high-order mode was injection locked by a signal light.
4508
Fig. 14. Principle of an optical inverter using an injection-locked two-mode
VCSEL [69].
Fig. 15. Optical input/output characteristics of the VCSEL with external
light injected into the LP02 mode. The polarizations of the input light are
parallel (solid line) and orthogonal (dashed line) to that of the dominant lasing
mode [69].
Fig. 14 illustrates the principle of an optical inverter using a
VCSEL. External light (signal light), with a wavelength slightly
longer than that of a high-order transverse mode, is injected
into the VCSEL. The dominant lasing mode switches from
a fundamental mode to the high-order mode due to injection
locking. If we look at the output power of the fundamental mode
as a function of the input power, an optical inverter function
with abrupt switching is obtained.
An external light from a tunable laser diode was injected
through a standard single-mode fiber into a 1.55-µm InP-based
VCSEL with a 7-µm circular tunnel junction aperture, which
was fabricated by Nishiyama and his co-workers at Corning,
Inc. [97]. The dominant lasing mode at the bias current was
the fundamental mode. When a high-order mode is injection-
locked, an optical inverter function was obtained, as shown in
Fig. 15. An abrupt modal switching with a large extinction ratio
of > 25 dB was obtained. The difference in threshold input
power between the two orthogonal polarization inputs was as
low as ∼13%. Since the LP02 mode is circularly symmetric, we
could get polarization-insensitive injection locking. The pro-
posed inverter operated even for the input signal with random
polarization, showing a possibility of polarization insensitive
operation. The present device needs a few milliwatts of input
power, and thus, an optical amplifier is needed from of the
inverter.
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2006
Fig. 16. Eye diagrams of NRZ data at 1 Gb/s. (a) Input signal. (b) Regenerated
signal [98].
The obtained steplike transfer function would be useful for
optical regeneration. A distorted signal of 1-Gb/s nonreturn-
to-zero (NRZ) pseudorandom bit sequence with a word length
of 27-1 bit is injected into the VCSEL. Fig. 16 shows eye
diagrams of (a) the input signal and (b) the regenerated signal.
The distorted input signal is successfully regenerated. The mea-
sured back-to-back BER before and after regeneration shows
a receiver-sensitivity improvement of 1.2 dB at BER of 10-9
after the optical regeneration. The output waveform has been
degraded by the relaxation oscillation of the VCSEL. There-
fore, the switching speed of the VCSEL-based inverter is partly
limited by the modulation bandwidth of the VCSEL. It could
be improved to be beyond 10 Gb/s by using a VCSEL with
over a 10-Gb/s modulation bandwidth, which was already
demonstrated [41]. The VCSEL structure may provide us possi-
bilities of low-power consumption and polarization-insensitive
operations for all-optical signal processing.
B. All-Optical Polarization Control
The polarization control of randomly polarized signal light
in single-mode fibers is one of the remaining issues for future
photonic networks with polarization-dependent optical devices.
All-optical polarization control is a challenging subject for
high-speed polarization control. The elliptical-shaped VCSEL
cavity enables us to obtain stable polarization for a fundamental
transverse mode, while two orthogonal polarization states of
the high-order transverse mode are degenerate. Fig. 17 shows
the operating principle of an all-optical polarization controller
using an elliptical-apertured VCSEL [70]. When input light is
injected to the high-order mode of a VCSEL, the dominant
KOYAMA: RECENT ADVANCES OF VCSEL PHOTONICS
Fig. 17. All-optical polarization control using an injection locked VCSEL for
randomly polarized input signal [70].
lasing mode is abruptly switched from the fundamental mode
to the high-order mode due to injection locking. Thus, the
output of the fundamental mode shows an inverter behavior
as a function of the input light into the high-order mode. The
numerical simulation shows that two orthogonal polarization
states of LP11 high-order modes are degenerate while the
polarization state of the LP01 fundamental transverse mode
can be fixed for a properly designed elliptical-shaped VCSEL.
When we inject signal light into the high-order mode, the
switching characteristics of the LP11 high-order modes can
be polarization-insensitive. On the other hand, the polarization
state of the fundamental mode can be fixed with the help of an
elliptical shape. Thus, the input signal of randomly polarized
light can be converted to the output of the fundamental mode
with a fixed linear polarization state. The modulation waveform
can be transferred to the output of the fundamental mode with
signal inversion.
A 1.52-µm VCSEL with a 5 × 10-µm elliptical-shaped tun-
nel junction aperture was fabricated [70]. The VCSEL struc-
ture is the same as that in [41] and [97], except for the
shape of the tunnel junction aperture. The threshold current is
1.4 mA. A CW light from a tunable laser is injected into the
high-order mode of the VCSEL through a lensed single-mode
fiber. The wavelength is adjusted to the high-order mode, and
spatial off-center injection is done for improving a coupling
efficiency. The output of the fundamental mode is coupled to
the same fiber and is detected through an optical circulator
and a polarizer. The polarization state of the fundamental mode
could be controlled along the major axis of the elliptical tunnel
junction. The input light with an input power of 10 mW in
the fiber were injected along two orthogonal polarizations,
showing polarization-insensitive transverse mode switching.
The polarization stability of the output for randomly polarized
input is shown in Fig. 18. When the polarization of the input
light was scrambled by using a polarization scrambler, as shown
in the bottom figure of Fig. 18, large intensity fluctuations
through a polarizer were seen. On the other hand, polarization
fluctuations of output could be perfectly suppressed with signal
inversion, as shown in the upper figure of Fig. 18. The low
output power in Fig. 18 is due to low coupling efficiency for
the high-order mode and partly due to the insertion loss of the
polarizer. The operating speed is the same as the optical inverter
described in the previous section. The proposed structure based
on an injection-locked VCSEL may enable high-speed optical
polarization control for use in future photonic networks.
4509
Fig. 18. Intensity fluctuations of scrambled polarization input (the bottom
figure) and intensity stability of output fundamental mode through a polarizer
(the upper figure) [70].
C. Nonlinear Optical Phase Shifter
Fiber nonlinearities are dominant limiting factors for high-
speed transmission systems of 40 Gb/s or beyond. Waveform
distortion is induced by various fiber nonlinear effects such as
self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation, and four-wave
mixing. The fiber nonlinear effects cannot be compensated by
linear optical circuits in the optical domain. If we realize a
nonlinear optical compensator, which gives us a negative phase
shift in an opposite sign of optical Kerr effect in fibers, we are
able to compensate fiber nonlinealities by inserting the device.
An optical nonlinear phase-shifter based on a VCSEL structure
with a saturable absorber was demonstrated [72].
Fig. 19 shows the schematic structure and the operating
principle of the optical phase shifter based on 1.55-µm VCSEL
structure [41], [97]. This device consists of the dielectric multi-
layer structure (top-DBR) and 40-pair InGaAlAs/InP (bottom-
DBR) and InGaAlAs QWs functioning as a saturable absorber.
An intensity-dependent negative refractive index change ap-
pears with an opposite sign of the optical Kerr effect in the
saturable absorber, which is enhanced by a resonant vertical
cavity. The modeling result shows that either positive or nega-
tive phase-shifts of reflected light can be obtained with 1.55-µm
VCSEL, depending on the cavity Q-value [50]. Both positive
and negative phase shifts are useful for the compensation
of laser chirp and fiber nonlinearities in the optical domain,
respectively.
There is the tradeoff between the phase shift and opti-
cal bandwidth. Therefore, we have to choose suitable de-
sign of mirrors for optimizing bandwidth and phase shift. An
InGaAlAs saturable absorber is sandwiched by the two mirrors.
If the input light power coupled to this device increases, the
4510
Fig. 19. Schematic structure and operating principle of nonlinear-effect optical compensator using InGaAlAs vertical cavity saturable absorber [72].
Fig. 20. Measured wavelength dependence of nonlinear phase shift for differ-
ent input power. The measured device is 1.55 µm InGaAlAs VCSEL without
reverse bias [99].
phase difference is induced by the refractive index change in
the saturable absorber. The fabricated device consists of 3-pair
SiO2 /Ta2 O5 (top-DBR), InGaAlAs/InP (bottom-DBR with a
reflectivity of > 99.9%), and InGaAlAs QWs functioning as a
saturable absorber. The reflectivity is estimated to be 70%. The
fabricated structure is not optimized in terms of the top mirror
reflectivity. Also, no reverse bias gives slow recovery time in the
1-ns range. The reflectivity and the group delay dependence on
input power was measured by using an optical component ana-
lyzer (Advantest Q7761) with a tunable laser source. The phase
shift was estimated by performing spectral domain integration
of the measured group delay. Fig. 20 shows the nonlinear
phase-shift from the data of 0.10-mW input power. The solid
lines show the calculation. Here, we assume that the saturation
coefficient is 2 kW/cm2 , which corresponds to the case of
m = 1 ns recovery time for a saturable absorber without reverse
bias. A positive group delay and negative phase shifts were
observed as predicted in theory. We obtained a large negative
phase shift of a −0.4 rad for input power of 0.42 mW, which is
large enough for compensating 100-km-long fiber nonlineari-
ties [99]. The reduction of absorption recovery time below 10 ps
with reverse bias enables us to use the compensator for high
bit-rate signals. The addition of 1.2-V reverse bias showed the
transient response of nonlinear phase shifts, even for 7-ps input
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2006
pulses [72]. The novel nonlinear-effect compensator shows a
large nonlinear negative phase shift that depends on input power
levels. The proposed concept may open up a novel technology
for compensating fiber nonlinearities in the optical domain.
V. C ONCLUSION
Some recent advances on VCSEL photonics were re-
viewed, including wavelength engineering and new functions of
VCSELs. The wavelength extension and wavelength integra-
tion of highly strained GaInAs QW VCSELs were described,
showing a possibility of a VCSEL-based multiwavelength light
source. The small footprint of VCSELs allowed us to form a
densely packed VCSEL array both in space and in wavelength.
The wavelength engineering of VCSELs may open up ultrahigh
capacity networking. In addition, new functions of VCSELs
for optical signal processing were addressed, which include
optical regenerators and optical polarization controllers based
on an injection-locked VCSEL. Also, a novel nonlinear optical
phase-shifter enables us to compensate fiber nonlinearities in
the optical domain.
It has already been 30 years since a VCSEL was invented.
The emission wavelength is from ultraviolet to infrared spectral
regions. We have seen various potential applications including
datacom, sensors, optical interconnects, spectroscopy, optical
storages, printers, laser displays, laser radar, atomic clock,
optical signal processing, and so on. Therefore, most VCSEL
applications have been in “light” optics with low-power con-
sumption. On the other hand, VCSELs with external cavities—
so-called VECSELs [100]—allow a large emitting area of the
device with a single-transverse mode, and thus, high power of
over 1 W can be obtained. The external cavity configuration
also allows intracavity frequency doubling, which is currently
attracting much interest for green light emitters of laser display
applications [101]. These high-power applications are also very
challenging for future optoelectronics.
Another aspect, which is not described in this paper, is the
spontaneous emission in microcavities. The spontaneous emis-
sion control in VCSELs has emerged as one of the unexplored
problems of fundamental physics [102]. Microcavity VCSELs
with quantum dots would be among the good candidates
for single-photon emitters. The combination of VCSELs and
KOYAMA: RECENT ADVANCES OF VCSEL PHOTONICS
photonic crystals is also an interesting subject for transverse-
mode control for large area devices and for beam steering
[103]–[105].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to thank Prof. Emeritus K. Iga of
the Tokyo Institute of Technology for his encouragement.
The author would also like to thank Prof. T. Miyamoto and
laboratory members for their contributions to this paper.
R EFERENCES
[1] K. Iga, “Surface-emitting laser-its birth and generation of new opto-
electronics field,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron., vol. 6, no. 6,
pp. 1201–1215, Dec. 2000.
[2] ——, “Surface emitting laser,” Trans. IEICE, C-I, vol. JBl-C-1, no. 9,
pp. 483–493, Sep. 1998.
[3] H. Soda, K. Iga, C. Kitahara, and Y. Suematsu, “GaInAsP/InP
surface emitting injection lasers,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 18, no. 12,
pp. 2329–2330, Dec. 1979.
[4] K. Iga, S. Kinoshita, and F. Koyama, “Microcavity GaAlAs/GaAs
surface-emitting laser with I = 6 mA,” Electron. Lett., vol. 23, no. 3,
pp. 134–136, Jan. 1987.
[5] F. Koyama, S. Kinoshita, and K. Iga, “Room-temperature continuous
wave lasing characteristics of GaAs vertical cavity surface-emitting
laser,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 221–222, Jul. 1989.
[6] J. L. Jewell, A. Scherer, S. L. McCall, Y. H. Lee, S. Walker,
J. P. Harbison, and L. T. Florez, “Low-threshold electrically pumped
vertical-cavity surface-emitting microlasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 25,
no. 17, pp. 1123–1124, Aug. 1989.
[7] R. S. Geels, S. W. Corzine, and L. A. Coldren, “InGaAs vertical-cavity
surface-emitting lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 27, no. 6,
pp. 1359–1367, Jun. 1991.
[8] D. L. Huffaker, D. G. Deppe, K. Kumar, and T. J. Rogers, “Native-oxide
defined ring contact for low threshold vertical-cavity lasers,” Appl. Phys.
Lett., vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 97–99, Jul. 1994.
[9] K. D. Choquette, K. M. Geib, C. I. H. Ashby, R. D. Twesten, O. Blum,
H. Q. Hou, D. M. Follstaedt, B. E. Hammons, D. Mathes, and R. Hull,
“Advances in selective wet oxidation of AlGaAs alloys,” IEEE J. Sel.
Topics Quantum Electron., vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 916–926, Jun. 1997.
[10] Y. Hayashi, T. Mukaihara, N. Hatori, N. Ohnoki, A. Matsutani,
F. Koyama, and K. Iga, “Lasing characteristics of low-threshold oxide
confinement InGaAs-GaAlAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers,”
IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 7, no. 11, pp. 1234–1236, Nov. 1995.
[11] K. L. Lear, K. D. Choquette, R. P. Schneider, Jr., S. P. Kilcoyne, and
K. M. Geib, “Selectively oxidized vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers
with 50% power conversion efficiency,” Electron. Lett., vol. 31, no. 3,
pp. 208–209, Feb. 1995.
[12] R. Jmger, M. Grabherr, C. Jung, R. Michalzik, G. Reiner, B. Wigl, and
K. J. Ebeling, “57% wallplug efficiency oxide-confined 850 nm wave-
length GaAs VCSELs,” Electron. Lett., vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 330–331,
Feb. 1997.
[13] T. Baba, Y. Yogo, K. Suzuki, F. Koyama, and K. Iga, “Near room tem-
perature continuous wave lasing characteristics of GaInAsP/InP surface
emitting laser,” Electron. Lett., vol. 29, no. 10, pp. 913–914, Oct. 1993.
[14] D. Schlenker, T. Miyamoto, Z. Chen, F. Koyama, and K. Iga, “1.17 µm
highly strained GaInAs-GaAs quantum-well laser,” IEEE Photon.
Technol. Lett., vol. 11, no. 8, pp. 946–948, Aug. 1999.
[15] N. Nishiyama, M. Arai, S. Shinada, M. Azuchi, T. Miyamoto,
F. Koyama, and K. Iga, “Highly strained GaInAs/GaAs quantum well
vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser on GaAs (311)B substrate for sta-
ble polarization operation,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron.,
vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 242–248, May 2001.
[16] C. Asplund, P. Sundgren, S. Mogg, M. Hammar, U. Christiansson,
V. Oscarsson, C. Runnstrmm, E. Odling, and J. Malmquist, “1260 nm
InGaAs vertical-cavity lasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 38, no. 13,
pp. 635–636, 2002.
[17] H. C. Kuo, Y. H. Chang, H. H. Yao, Y. A. Chang, F. I. Lai,
M. Y. Tsai, and S. C. Wang, “High-speed modulation of InGaAs:
Sb-GaAs-GaAsP quantum-well vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers
with 1.27 µm emission wavelength,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.,
vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 528–530, Mar. 2004.
4511
[18] R. M. von Wotemberg, P. Sundgren, J. Berggren, M. Hammar,
M. Ghisoni, V. Oscarsson, and J. Malmquist, “1.3 µm InGaAs
vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with mode filter for single
mode operation,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 85, no. 21, pp. 4851–4853,
Nov. 2004.
[19] E. Pougeoise, P. Gilet, P. Grosse, S. Poncet, A. Chelnokov, J. M. Gerard,
G. Bourgeois, R. Stevens, R. Hamelin, M. Hammar, J. Berggren, and
P. Sundgren, “Strained InGaAs quantum well vertical cavity surface
emitting lasers emitting at 1.3 µm,” Electron. Lett., vol. 42, no. 10,
pp. 584–586, May 2006.
[20] R. P. Mirin, J. P. Ibbetson, K. Nishi, A. C. Gossard, and J. E. Bowers,
“1.3 µm photoluminescence from InGaAs quantum dots on GaAs,”
Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 67, no. 25, pp. 3795–3797, Dec. 1995.
[21] J. A. Lott, N. N. Ledentsov, V. M. Ustinov, N. A. Maleev,
A. E. Zhukov, A. R. Kovsh, M. V. Maximov, B. V. Volovik,
Z. I. Alferov, and D. Bimberg, “InAs-InGaAs quantum dot VCSEL’s
on GaAs substrates emitting at 1.3 µm,” Electron. Lett., vol. 36, no. 16,
pp. 1384–1385, Aug. 2000.
[22] T. Anan, M. Yamada, K. Nishi, K. Kurihara, K. Tokutome, A. Kamei,
and S. Sugou, “Continuous-wave operation of 1.30 µm GaAsSb/GaAs
VCSELs,” Electron. Lett., vol. 37, no. 9, pp. 566–567, Apr. 2001.
[23] D. C. Kilper, F. Quochi, J. E. Cunningham, and M. Dinu, “High-speed
dynamics of GaAsSb vertical-cavity lasers,” IEEE Photon. Technol.
Lett., vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 438–440, Apr. 2002.
[24] P. Dowd, S. R. Johnson, S. A. Feld, M. Adamcyk, S. A. Chaparro,
J. Joseph, K. Hilgers, M. P. Horning, K. Shiralagi, and Y. H. Zhang,
“Long wavelength GaAsP/GaAs/GaAsSb VCSELs on GaAs substrates
for communications applications,” Electron. Lett., vol. 39, no. 13,
pp. 987–988, Jun. 2003.
[25] M. Kondow, K. Uomi, A. Niwa, T. Kitatani, S. Watahiki, and Y. Yazawa,
“GaInNAs: A novel material for long-wavelength-range laser diodes
with excellent high-temperature performance,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.,
vol. 35, no. 2B, pp. 1273–1275, Feb. 1996.
[26] K. D. Choquette, J. F. Klem, A. J. Fischer, O. Blum, A. A. Allerman,
I. J. Fritz, S. R. Kurtz, W. G. Breiland, R. Sieg, K. M. Geib,
J. W. Scott, and R. L. Naone, “Room temperature continuous wave
InGaAsN quantum well vertical-cavity lasers emitting at 1.3 µm,”
Electron. Lett., vol. 36, no. 16, pp. 1388–1390, Aug. 2000.
[27] N. Nishiyama, S. Sato, T. Miyamoto, T. Takahashi, N. Jikutani,
M. Arai, A. Matsutani, F. Koyama, and K. Iga, “First CW operation of
1.26 µm electrically pumped MOCVD grown GaInNAs/GaAs VCSEL,”
presented at the IEEE Int. Semiconductor Laser Conf. (ISLC), Monterey,
CA, 2000, Postdeadline Paper PD-1.
[28] B. Borchert, A. Y. Egorov, S. Illek, M. Komainda, and H. Riechert,
“1.29 µm GaInNAs multiple quantum-well ridge-waveguide laser
diodes with improved performance,” Electron. Lett., vol. 35, no. 25,
pp. 2204–2206, Dec. 1999.
[29] T. Kageyama, T. Miyamoto, S. Makino, N. Nishiyama, F. Koyama, and
K. Iga, “High-temperature operation up to 170 ◦ C of GaInNAs-GaAs
quantum-well lasers grown by chemical beam epitaxy,” IEEE Photon.
Technol. Lett., vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 10–12, Jan. 2000.
[30] A. W. Jackson, R. L. Naone, M. J. Dalberth, J. M. Smith, K. J. Malone,
D. W. Kisker, J. F. Klem, K. D. Choquette, D. K. Serkland, and
K. M. Geib, “OC-48 capable InGaAsN vertical cavity lasers,” Electron.
Lett., vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 355–356, Mar. 2001.
[31] A. Ramakrishnan, G. Steinle, D. Supper, C. Degen, and
G. Ebbinghaus, “Electrically pumped 10 Gb/s MOVPE-grown
monolithic 1.3 µm VCSEL with GaInNAs active region,” Electron.
Lett., vol. 38, no. 7, pp. 322–324, Mar. 2002.
[32] T. Takeuchi, Y.-L. Chang, M. Leary, A. Tandon, H.-C. Luan, D. Bour,
S. Corzine, R. Twist, and M. Tan, “1.3 µm InGaAsN vertical cavity
surface emitting lasers grown by MOCVD,” Electron. Lett., vol. 38,
no. 23, pp. 1438–1440, Nov. 2002.
[33] R.-S. Hsiao, J.-S. Wang, K.-F. Lin, L. Wei, H.-Y. Liu, C.-Y. Liang,
C.-M. Lai, A. R. Kovsh, N. A. Maleev, J.-Y. Chi, and J.-F. Chen,
“Single mode 1.3 µm InGaAsN/GaAs quantum well vertical cavity
surface emitting lasers grown by molecular beam epitaxy,” Jpn. J. Appl.
Phys., vol. 43, no. 12A, pp. L1555–L1557, 2004.
[34] T. Nishida, M. Takaya, S. Kakinuma, and T. Kaneko, “4.2-mW GaInNAs
long-wavelength VCSEL grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposi-
tion,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron., vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 958–961,
Sep./Oct. 2005.
[35] J. Jewell, L. Graham, M. Crom, K. Maranowski, J. Smith, and
T. Fanning, “1310 nm VCSELs in 1–10 Gb/s commercial applications,”
Proc. SPIE, vol. 6132, 613204, 2006.
[36] M. A. Wistey, S. R. Bank, H. P. Bae, H. B Yuen, E. R. Pickett,
L. L. Goddard, and J. S. Harris, “GaInNAsSb/GaAs vertical cavity
4512
surface emitting lasers at 1534 nm,” Electron. Lett., vol. 42, no. 5,
pp. 282–283, Mar. 2006.
[37] D. I. Babic, K. Streubel, R. P. Mirin, N. M. Margalit, J. E. Bowers,
E. L. Hu, D. E. Mars, L. Yang, and K. Carey, “Room-temperature
continuous-wave operation of 1.54 µm vertical-cavity lasers,” IEEE
Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 7, no. 11, pp. 1225–1227, Nov. 1995.
[38] M. Ortsiefer, R. Shau, G. Böhm, F. Köhler, and M.-C. Amann, “Low-
threshold index-guided 1.5 µm long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-
emitting laser with high efficiency,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 76, no. 16,
pp. 2179–2181, Apr. 2000.
[39] V. Jayaraman, M. Mehta, A. W. Jackson, S. Wu, Y. Okuno, J. Piprek, and
J. E. Bowers, “High-power 1320 nm wafer bonded VCSELs with tunnel
junction,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 1495–1497,
Nov. 2003.
[40] C.-K. Lin, D. Bour, J. Zhu, W. Perez, M. Leary, A. Tandon,
S. Corzine, and M. Tan, “High temperature continuous-wave operation
of 1.3–1.55 µm VCSELs with InP/air-gap DBRs,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics
Quantum Electron., vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 1415–1421, Sep./Oct. 2003.
[41] N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, B. Hall, G. Guryanov, M. Hu, X. Liu,
M. J. Li, R. Bhat, and C.-E. Zah, “Long wavelength vertical cavity
surface emitting lasers on InP with lattice matched AlGaInAs/InP DBR
grown by MOCVD,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron., vol. 11,
no. 5, pp. 990–998, Sep./Oct. 2005.
[42] J. Cheng, C.-L. Shieh, X. Huang, G. Liu, M. V. R. Murty,
C. C. Lin, and D. X. Xu, “Efficient CW lasing and high-speed modula-
tion of 1.3 µm AlGaInAs VCSELs with good high temperature lasing
performance,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 7–9,
Jan. 2005.
[43] M. V. R. Murty, X. D. Huang, G. L. Liu, C. C. Lin, D. Xu, C. L. Shieh,
H. C. Lee, and J. Cheng, “Long-wavelength VCSEL-based CWDM
scheme for 10-GbE links,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 17, no. 6,
pp. 1286–1288, Jun. 2005.
[44] V. Iakovlev, G. Suruceanu, A. Caliman, A. Mereuta, A. Mircea,
C.-A. Berseth, A. Syrbu, A. Rudra, and E. Kapon, “High-performance
single-mode VCSELs in the 1310-nm waveband,” IEEE Photon. Tech-
nol. Lett., vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 947–949, May 2005.
[45] D. Feezell, D. A. Buell, and L. A. Coldren, “InP-based 1.3–1.6 µm
VCSELs with selectively etched tunnel-junction apertures on a wave-
length flexible platform,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 17, no. 10,
pp. 2017–2019, Oct. 2005.
[46] J. Boucart, G. Suruceanu, P. Royo, V. I. Iakovlev, A. Syrbu,
A. Caliman, A. Mereuta, A. Mircea, C. A. Berseth, A. Rudra, and
E. Kapon, “3.125-Gb/s modulation up to 70 deg/C using 1.3 µm
VCSELs fabricated with localized wafer fusion for 10GBASE LX4
applications,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 571–573,
Feb. 2006.
[47] W. Hofmann, N. H. Zhu, M. Ortsiefer, G. Bohm, J. Rosskopf, L. Chao,
S. Zhang, M. Maute, and M.-C. Amann, “10-Gb/s data transmission
using BCB passivated 1.55 µm InGaAlAs-InP VCSELs,” IEEE Photon.
Technol. Lett., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 424–426, Jan. 2006.
[48] A. N. Al-Omari and K. L. Lear, “Polyimide-planarized vertical-
cavity surface-emitting lasers with 17.0-GHz bandwidth,” IEEE Photon.
Technol. Lett., vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 969–971, Apr. 2004.
[49] P. Pepeljugoski, D. Kuchta, Y. Kwark, P. Pleunis, and G. Kuyt,
“15.6-Gb/s transmission over 1 km of next generation multimode
fiber,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 717–719,
May 2004.
[50] D. M. Kuchta, P. Pepeljugoski, and Y. Kwark, “VCSEL modulation at
20 Gb/s over 200 m of multimode fiber using a 3.3 V SiGe laser driver
IC,” presented at the LEOS Summer Topical Meeting, Copper Mountain,
CO, Jul./Aug. 2001, Paper WA1.2.
[51] M. Suzuki, H. Hatakeyama, K. Fukatsu, T. Anan, K. Yashiki, and
M. Tsuji, “25-Gb/s operation of 1.1 µm-range InGaAs VCSELs for high-
speed optical interconnections,” presented at the Optical Fiber Commun.
Conf., Anaheim, CA, Mar. 2006, OFA4.
[52] C. J. Chang-Hasnain, J. P. Harbison, C. E. Zah, M. W. Maeda,
L. T. Florez, N. G. Stoffel, and T. P. Lee, “Multiple wavelength tunable
surface-emitting laser arrays,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 27, no. 6,
pp. 1368–1376, Jun. 1991.
[53] F. Koyama, T. Mukaihara, Y. Hayashi, N. Ohnoki, N. Hatori, and
K. Iga, “Wavelength control of vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers by
using nonplanar MOCVD,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 7, no. 1,
pp. 10–12, Jan. 1995.
[54] L. E. Eng, K. Bacher, Y. Wupen, J. S. Harris, Jr., and C. J. Chang-
Hasnain, “Multiple-wavelength vertical cavity laser arrays on patterned
substrates,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron., vol. 1, no. 2,
pp. 624–628, Jun. 1995.
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2006
[55] G. G. Oritz, S. Q. Luong, S. Z. Sun, J. Cheng, H. Q. Hou, G. A. Vawer,
and B. E. Hammons, “Monolithic, multiple-wavelength vertical-cavity
surface-emitting laser arrays by surface-controlled MOCVD growth rate
enhancement and reduction,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 9, no. 8,
pp. 1069–1071, Aug. 1997.
[56] K. Yang, Y. Zhou, X. D. Huang, C. P. Hains, and J. Cheng,
“Monolithic oxide-confined multiple-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-
emitting laser arrays with a 57-nm wavelength grading range using an
oxidized upper Bragg mirror,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 12,
no. 4, pp. 377–379, Apr. 2000.
[57] J. K. Kash, F. E. Doany, L. Schares, C. L. Schow, C. Schuster,
D. M. Kuchta, P. Pepeljugoski, J. M. Trewhella, C. W. Baks, R. A. John,
J. L. Shan, Y. H. Kwark, R. A. Budd, P. Chiniwalla, F. R. Libsch,
J. Rosner, C. K. Tsang, C. S. Patel, J. D. Schaub, D. Kucharski,
D. Guckenberger, S. Hedge, H. Nyikal, R. Dangel, F. Horst, B. J. Offrein,
C. K. Lin, A. Tandon, G. R. Trott, M. Nystrom, D. Bour, M. R. Tan,
D. W. Dolfi, “Chip-to-chip optical interconnects,” presented at the
Optical Fiber Commun. Conf., Anaheim, CA, 2006, Paper OFA3.
[58] C. J. Chang-Hasnain, “Tunable VCSEL,” IEEE Sel. Topics Quantum
Electron., vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 978–987, Nov./Dec. 2000.
[59] M. C. Larson, B. Pezeshki, and J. S. Harris, Jr., “Broadly-tunable
resonant-cavity light-emitting diode,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.,
vol. 7, no. 11, pp. 382–384, Nov. 1995.
[60] M. S. Wu, E. C. Vail, G. S. Li, W. Yuen, and C. J. Chang-Hasnain,
“Tunable micromachined vertical cavity surface emitting laser,”
Electron. Lett., vol. 31, no. 19, pp. 1671–1672, Sep. 1995.
[61] A. Syrbu, V. Iakovlev, G. Suruceanu, A. Caliman, A. Rudra, A. Mircea,
A. Mereuta, S. Tadeoni, C.-A. Berseth, M. Achtenhagen, J. Boucart,
and E. Kapon, “1.55 µm optically pumped wafer-fused tunable VCSELs
with 32-nm tuning range,” IEEE Photon Technol. Lett., vol. 16, no. 9,
pp. 1991–1993, Sep. 2004.
[62] M. Maute, B. Kogel, G. Bohm, P. Meissner, and M.-C. Amann, “MEMS-
tunable 1.55 µm VCSEL with extended tuning range incorporating a
buried tunnel junction,” IEEE Photon Technol. Lett., vol. 18, no. 5,
pp. 688–690, Mar. 2006.
[63] C. H. Chang, L. Chrostowski, and C. J. Chang-Hasnain, “Injection lock-
ing of VCSELs,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum. Electron., vol. 9, no. 5,
pp. 1386–1393, Sep./Oct. 2003.
[64] J. Y. Law, G. H. M. van Tartwijk, and G. P. Agrawal, “Effects of
transverse-mode competition on the injection dynamics of vertical-cavity
surface-emitting lasers,” Quantum Semiclassical Opt., vol. 9, no. 5,
pp. 737–747, Oct. 1997.
[65] Y. Hong, P. S. Spencer, P. Rees, and K. A. Shore, “Optical injection
dynamics of two-mode vertical cavity surface-emitting semiconduc-
tor lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 274–278,
Mar. 2002.
[66] A. Valle, L. Pesquera, S. I. Turovets, and J. M. Lmpez, “Nonlinear
dynamics of current-modulated vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers,”
Opt. Commun., vol. 208, no. 1–3, pp. 173–182, Jul. 2002.
[67] H. Kawaguchi, Y. Yamayoshi, and K. Tamura, “All-optical format con-
version using an ultrafast polarization bistable vertical-cavity surface-
emitting laser,” in Proc. CLEO, 2000, pp. 379–380.
[68] F. Brown de Colstoun, G. Khitrova, A. V. Fedorov, T. R. Nelson,
C. Lowry, T. M. Brennan, B. G. Hammons, and P. D. Maker, “Trans-
verse mode, vortices and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers,” Chaos,
Solitons Fractals, vol. 4, no. 8/9, pp. 1575–1596, Aug./Sep. 1994.
[69] Y. Onishi, N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, F. Koyama, and C. E. Zah,
“Dynamic behavior of an all-optical inverter using transverse-mode
switching in 1.55-µm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers,” IEEE
Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 1236–1238, May 2004.
[70] K. Hasebe, F. Koyama, N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, and C. E. Zah,
“All-optical polarization controller using elliptical-apertured 1.5 µm
VCSEL,” presented at the Conf. Lasers and Electro-Optics, Long Beach,
CA, May 2006, Paper CWP1.
[71] X. Zhao, P. Palinginis, B. Pesala, C. J. Chang-Hasnain, and P. Hemmer,
“Room temperature tunable ultraslow light in 1550 nm VCSEL ampli-
fier,” presented at the Eur. Conf. Optical Commun. (ECOC), Glasgow,
U.K., 2005, Postdeadline paper, Th4.3.6.
[72] S. Suda, F. Koyama, N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, and C. E. Zah, “Op-
tical phase shifter using vertical microcavity with saturable absorber,”
presented at the Conf. Lasers and Electro-Optics, Long Beach, CA,
May 2006, Paper CWK3.
[73] Z. Pan, T. Miyamoto, D. Schlenker, S. Sato, F. Koyama, and K. Iga, “Low
temperature growth of GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells by metalorganic
chemical vapor deposition using tertiarybutylarsine,” J. Appl. Phys.,
vol. 84, no. 11, pp. 6409–6411, Dec. 1998.
KOYAMA: RECENT ADVANCES OF VCSEL PHOTONICS
[74] D. Schlenker, T. Miyamoto, Z. Chen, F. Koyama, and K. Iga, “Growth
of highly strained GaInAs/GaAs quantum wells for 1.2 µm wavelength
lasers,” J. Cryst. Growth, vol. 209, no. 1, pp. 27–36, Jan. 2000.
[75] N. Nishiyama, M. Arai, S. Shinada, T. Miyamoto, F. Koyama, and
K. Iga, “Growth and optical properties of highly strained GaInAs/GaAs
quantum wells on (311)B GaAs by MOCVD,” J. Cryst. Growth, vol. 221,
no. 1, pp. 530–534, Dec. 2000.
[76] Z. Chen, D. Schlenker, T. Miyamoto, T. Kondo, M. Kawaguchi,
F. Koyama, and K. Iga, “High temperature characteristics of near
1.2 µm InGaAs/AlGaAs lasers,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 38, no. 10B,
pp. L1178–1179, Oct. 1999.
[77] T. Kondo, M. Arai, M. Azuchi, T. Uchida, A. Matsutani, T. Miyamoto,
and F. Koyama, “Low threshold current density operation of 1.16 µm
highly strained GaInAs/GaAs vertical cavity surface emitting lasers on
(100) GaAs substrate,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 41, no. 5B, pp. L562–
L564, May 2002.
[78] T. Kondo, M. Arai, T. Miyamoto, and F. Koyama, “Highly strained
GaInAs/GaAs 1.13 µm vertical cavity surface emitting laser with un-
cooled single mode operation,” presented at the 16th Annu. Meet-
ing IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), Tucson, AZ,
Oct. 25–30, 2003, WD2.
[79] T. Kondo, M. Arai, M. Azuchi, T. Uchida, A. Matsutani, T. Miyamoto,
and F. Koyama, “Singlemode fibre transmission using 1.2 µm band
GaInAs/GaAs surface emitting laser,” Electron. Lett., vol. 38, no. 16,
pp. 901–903, Aug. 2002.
[80] J. Geske, V. Jayaraman, T. Goodwin, M. Culick, M. MacDougal,
T. Goodnough, D. Welch, and J. E. Bowers, “2.5-Gb/s transmission over
50 km with a 1.3-m vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser,” IEEE Photon.
Technol. Lett., vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 1707–1709, Dec. 2000.
[81] T. Kondo, M. Arai, T. Miyamoto, and F. Koyama, “Isolator-free 10 Gb/s
singlemode fiber date transmission using 1.1 µm GaInAs/GaAs vertical
cavity surface emitting laser,” Electron. Lett., vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 65–66,
Jan. 2004.
[82] M. Ariga, M. Arai, T. Kageyama, C. Setiagung, Y. Ikenaga, N. Iwai,
H. Shimizu, K. Nishikawa, A. Kasukawa, and F. Koyama, “Noise char-
acteristics of GaInNAsSb 1300-nm-range VCSEL with optical feed-
back for isolator-free module,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron.,
vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 1074–1078, Sep./Oct. 2005.
[83] L. Chrostowski, P. B. Subrahmanyam, Y. Zhou, and C. J. Chang-
Hasnain, “VCSEL tolerance to optical feedback for inter-chip optical
interconnects,” presented at the IEEE Int. Semiconductor Laser Conf.,
Shimane, Japan, 2004, Paper FA3.
[84] N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, S. Tsuda, G. Guryanov, M. Hu, R. Bhat,
and C. E. Zah, “10-Gb/s error-free transmission under optical reflection
using isolator-free 1.3 µm InP-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting
lasers,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 17, no. 8, pp. 1605–1607,
Aug. 2005.
[85] L. Buydens, P. Demeester, M. V. Ackere, A. Ackaret, and P. V. Daele,
“Thickness variations during MOVPE growth on pattemed substrates,”
J. Electron. Mater., vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 317–321, 1990.
[86] A. Onomura, M. Arai, T. Kondo, A. Matsutani, T. Miyamoto, and
F. Koyama, “Densely integrated multiple-wavelength vertical-cavity
surface-emitting laser array,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 42, no. 5B,
pp. L529–L531, May 2003.
[87] T. Fujii and M. Ekawa, “Origin of compositional modulation of
InGaAs in selective area metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy,” J. Appl.
Phys., vol. 78, no. 9, pp. 5373–5386, Nov. 1995.
[88] G. B. Stringfellow, Organometallic Vapor-Phase Epitaxy. New York:
Academic, 1989.
[89] M. Arai, T. Kondo, A. Onumura, A. Matsutani, T. Miyamoto, and
F. Koyama, “Multiple-wavelength GaInAs/GaAs vertical cavity surface
emitting laser array with extended wavelength span,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics
Quantum Electron., vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 1367–1373, Sep./Oct. 2003.
[90] Y. Uchiyama, T. Kondo, K. Takeda, A. Matsutani, T. Uchida,
T. Miyamoto, and F. Koyama, “Electro-thermal wavelength tuning of
1.2 µm GaInAs/GaAs vertical cavity surface emitting laser array,” in
Proc. 18th Annu. Meeting IEEE (LEOS), Sydney, Australia, Oct. 23–27,
2005, pp. 326–327.
[91] ——, “1.2 µm band GaInAs/GaAs high-density multiple-wavelength
vertical cavity surface emitting laser array,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 44,
no. 6, pp. L214–L215, Feb. 2005.
[92] ——, “Thermal cross-talk evaluation of densely integrated vertical cav-
ity surface emitting laser array,” IEICE Electron. Express, vol. 1, no. 17,
pp. 545–550, 2004.
[93] F. Koyama and K. Iga, “Wavelength stabilization and trimming tech-
nologies for vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers,” in Proc. Quantum
4513
Optoelectronics OSA Spring Topical Meeting (OSA Spring Topical),
1997, vol. 9, pp. 90–92.
[94] F. Koyama, T. Amano, N. Furukawa, N. Nishiyama, M. Arai, and
K. Iga, “Micromachined semiconductor vertical cavity for temperature
insensitive surface emitting lasers and optical filters,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.,
vol. 39, no. 3B, pp. 1542–1545, 2000.
[95] T. Amano, F. Koyama, M. Arai, and A. Matsutani, “Micromachined
GaAs/AlGaAs resonant-cavity light emitter with small temperature de-
pendence of emission wavelength,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 42, no. 11B,
pp. L1377–L1379, Nov. 2003.
[96] W. Janto, K. Hasebe, N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, T. Sakaguchi,
A. Matsutani, P. Babu Dayal, F. Koyama, and C. E. Zah, “Athermal
operation of 1.55 µm InP-based VCSEL with thermally-actuated
cantilever structure,” presented at the IEEE Int. Semiconductor Laser
Conf., Waikoloa, HI, 2006, PD1.1.
[97] N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, G. Guryanov, X. S. Liu, M. Hu, and C. E. Zah,
“High efficiency long wavelength VCSEL on InP grown by MOCVD,”
Electron. Lett., vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 437–439, Mar. 2003.
[98] Y. Onishi, N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, F. Koyama, and C. E. Zah, “All-
optical regeneration using transverse mode switching in long-wavelength
vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 39,
no. 3B, pp. 1542–1545, Mar. 2006.
[99] S. Suda, F. Koyama, N. Nishiyama, C. Caneau, and C. E. Zah, “Op-
tical nonlinear-effect compensator based on vertical-cavity saturable
absorber,” presented at the Proc. ECOC, 2006, Th1.4.7.
[100] M. Kuznetsov, F. Hakimi, R. Sprague, and A. Mooradian, “De-
sign and characteristics of high-power (> 0.5-W CW) diode-pumped
vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor lasers with cir-
cular TEM00Beams,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron., vol. 5,
no. 3, pp. 561–573, May/Jun. 1999.
[101] V. Shchegrov et al., “532-nm laser sources based on intracavity
frequency doubling of extended-cavity surface-emitting diode lasers,”
Proc. SPIE, vol. 5332, pp. 151–158, 2004.
[102] Y. Yamamoto and R. E. Slusher, “Optical processes in microcavities,”
Phys. Today, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 66–73, 1993.
[103] D. S. Song, S. H. Kim, H. G. Park, C. K. Kim, and Y. H. Lee, “Single-
fundamental-mode photonic-crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting
lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 80, no. 21, pp. 3901–3903, May 2002.
[104] A. Furukawa, S. Sasaki, M. Hoshi, A. Matsuzono, K. Moritoh, and
T. Baba, “High-power single-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting
lasers with triangular holey structure,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 85, no. 22,
pp. 5161–5163, Nov. 2004.
[105] J. J. Raftery, A. C. Lehman, A. J. Danner, P. O. Leisher,
A. V. Giannopoulos, and K. D. Choquette, “In-phase evanescent cou-
pling of two-dimensional arrays of defect cavities in photonic crystal
vertical cavity surface emitting lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 89, no. 8,
p. 081119, Aug. 2006.
Fumio Koyama (M’86–SM’05) was born in Tokyo,
Japan, on May 16, 1957. He received the B.S., M.S.,
and Ph.D. degrees in physical electronics from Tokyo
Institute of Technology, in 1980, 1982, and 1985,
respectively.
He is a Professor of Microsystem Research Center,
Precision and Intelligence Laboratory, Tokyo Insti-
tute of Technology. Currently, he is doing research on
vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers, photonic in-
tegrated wavelength-division-multiplexing devices,
optical microelectromechanical-system devices, and
related semiconductor microfabrication technologies. From 1992 to 1993, he
was with AT&T Bell Laboratories, Crawford Hill, NJ, as a visiting member
of the technical staff. He has authored and coauthored more than 360 journal
papers and 400 conference papers.
Dr. Koyama received the IEEE Student Paper Award in 1985, the IEE
Electronics Letters Premium in 1985 and 1988, the Paper Award from the
Institute of Electrical, Information, and Communication Engineers (IEICE) of
Japan in 1990, 1994, and 2002, the Marubun Scientific Award from Marubun
Research Promotion Foundation in 1998, the Ichimura Award from the New
Technology Development Foundation in 2004, and the Electronics Society
Award from the IEICE of Japan in 2006. He is a member of IEICE of Japan
and the Japan Society of Applied Physics.