Recent advances of VCSEL technologies

A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) was invented 30 years ago. A lot of unique features have been proven, such as low power consumption, wafer-level testing, small packaging 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 multi-mode 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 photonics will be reviewed, which include the wavelength integration/control of single-mode VCSELs. The athermal operation of micromachined VCSELs are demonstrated. Also, this paper explores the potential and challenges for new functions of VCSELs, including high-speed nonlinear phase-shifters, slow light modulators and so on.