Temperature characteristics of high power vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

By using oxidation confinement technology high power vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers are fabricated in experiment. The electrical and optical performance characteristics such as threshold current, efficiency, emission wavelength, and output power are measured under continuous wave (CW) condition at room temperature. The maximum output power is up to watt regime at wavelength of about 980nm. The temperature characteristics of the device are investigated experimentally in detail. The variation in lasing threshold current with temperature is studied. The characteristic temperature To of the device is derived, and the value is about 211K. Such a high characteristic temperature To of threshold current can lead to good temperature sensitivity of the device. At the same time, the lasing spectrum characteristics with temperature are also measured. The wavelength shift with temperature is just about 0.06nm/K. From the measured results, it is shown that the device can still operate at high temperature condition.