HIGH-TEMPERATURE PULSED AND CONTINUOUS-WAVE OPERATION AND THERMALLY STABLE THRESHOLD CHARACTERISTICS OF VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASERS GROWN BY METALORGANIC CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION

A systematic and comparative study of the temperature performance of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) is presented to discuss how thermal effects govern their temperature range for cw operation. These include the temperature-induced detuning of the lasing mode from the gain peak, thermal self-heating, and thermal runaway. The power dissipation of the VCSELs and the resultant rise in junction temperature have been measured as a function of the mode detuning. It is shown that low power dissipation is achieved by aligning the cavity mode to the gain peak and introducing continuously graded heterointerfaces throughout the VCSEL structure. By selecting the optimal mode detuning, VCSELs have achieved excellent operating characteristics over a broad range of temperatures, including thermally stable threshold voltage and current, and a very wide temperature range for both pulsed (100-580 K) and continuous-wave (100-400 K) operations.