Blue Monolithic Ii-Vi-Based Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser

We report on laser operation of optically pumped, fully epitaxial blue vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. The ZnSe-based structures posses a bottom and top distributed Bragg reflector consisting of ZnMgSSe as high-index material and a short-period superlattice of MgS/ZnCdSe as low-index material. The cavity has an optical thickness of lambda and contains three ZnSe quantum wells surrounded by ZnMgSSe barriers. To illustrate the specific issues related to this demanding material combination, we compare two epitaxial structures of different crystalline quality. A minimum threshold of 5 pJ is observed for laser emission at 443 nm comparable to values reported for nitride based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3696029]