Fabrication of micro-aperture surface emitting laser for near field optical data storage

We fabricated a micro-aperture vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) for use in near field optical data storage. A composite mirror of Au and a 11-pair semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) provides a reflectivity of more than 99%. Fabricated VCSEL devices exhibited sub-mil low threshold operation. A micro-aperture with a diameter below 400 nm was introduced in Au film using focused ion beam etching. A localized near field at a 400 nm aperture was observed and the output power from the aperture was estimated to be 10 mu W.