垂直腔面发射激光器(VCSEL)具有尺寸小、功耗低、效率高、调制带宽大、寿命长、圆形光束、在片测试、易于二维阵列排列等优点,广泛应用于数据通信、传感、激光雷达、材料加工等领域。这些应用通常要求VCSEL具有优异的模式、速率、能效、高温性能等。人们基于“分离”限制思路发展了多种单模新型氧化限制VCSEL。采用新型VCSEL结构、改善有源区性能、减小寄生效应和减小热效应等方法,VCSEL在速率、功耗、高温性能等方面取得了显著进展。光子超结构具有优异的性能,它为VCSEL控制模式和光场,以及其和平面光子回路的集成提供了新思路。

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) provide several advantages, such as small footprint, low power consumption, high efficiency, broad modulation bandwidth, long lifetime, circular beam, wafer-level test, and two-dimensional array arrangement. VCSELs have been widely deployed in fields such as data communication, sensing, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), and material processing. These applications require VCSELs that have superior modal properties, high data rate, high energy efficiency, and high temperature stability. Many novel oxide-confined VCSELs based on separated confinement for single-mode operation have been reported. Progress in data rate, power consumption, and temperature stability of VCSELs has been achieved using novel VCSEL structures, improving the active region, reducing the parasitic effect, and reducing the thermal effect. Photonic metastructures with unique optical properties can be used to control the modes and modal fields of VCSELs and integrate VCSELs with in-plane photonic circuits.