An optoelectronic device employs a surface-trapped TM-polarized optical mode existing at a boundary between a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and a homogeneous medium, dielectric or air. The device contains a resonant optical cavity surrounded by two DBRs, and an additional DBR section on top supporting the surface-trapped mode. Selective chemical transformation, like selective oxidation, etching or alloy composition intermixing form a central core and a periphery having different vertical profiles of the refractive index. Therefore, the longitudinal VCSEL mode in the core is non-orthogonal to the surface-trapped mode in the periphery, and the two modes can be transformed into each other. Such transformation allows fabrication of a number of optoelectronic devices and systems like a single transverse mode VCSEL, an integrated optical circuit operating as an optical amplifier, an integrated optical circuit combining a VCSEL and a resonant cavity photodetector, etc.

Optical beam quality of an optoelectronic device is improved by suppression of high-order transverse optical modes by their resonant interaction with the continuum of modes in the surrounding regions, such continuum being realized by replacement of one or several layers by layers having a lower refractive index. In particular, selective oxidation of GaAlAs-based vertical cavity surface emitting laser results in (Ga)AlO layers surrounding the aperture and having a lower refractive index than the original (Ga)AlAs layers. The continuum of optical modes originates due to the modification of the optical field in the areas surrounding the aperture caused by the low index insertions positioned to result in enhancement of the optical field in their vicinity. High-order lateral optical modes in the aperture region exhibit larger leakage losses than the fundamental lateral optical mode due to the resonant interaction with the continuum of modes outside the aperture, enabling single-mode lasing from a broad aperture vertical cavity surface emitting laser.

An edge-emitting semiconductor laser and fabrication method is disclosed that includes a second, passive waveguide and cladding layer disposed above the multi-layer arrangement of a first waveguiding layer and a first cladding layer. The active region of the laser is contained within or along a lower surface of the first waveguiding layer, as in standard devices. The regrowth interface is located along a top surface of the first cladding layer, as compared to the prior art where this interface is located within the first waveguiding layer. The resulting configuration exhibits an improved coupling efficiency by maintaining the propagating optical mode within the active waveguiding layer and away from the regrowth interface.

Device comprising a high brightness broad-area edge-emitting semiconductor laser and method of making the same. The device includes an edge-emitting semiconductor laser, said laser having a multi-layered waveguide, and said waveguide comprising at least one layer with an active region that emits light under electrical injection, and at least one aperiodic layer stack.

A semiconductor laser comprises: a substrate; a first cladding layer disposed above the substrate; a second cladding layer disposed above the first cladding layer so that the first cladding layer is positioned between the substrate and the second cladding layer; and a first mode expansion layer within the first cladding layer, a second mode expansion layer within the second cladding layer, or both the first mode expansion layer within the first cladding layer and the second mode expansion layer within the second cladding.

A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) device comprising a VCSEL emitter having a waveguide with a guided portion and an antiguided portion is disclosed. The guided and antiguided portions may select and confine a mode of the VCSEL emitter. The antiguided portion may also be used to coherently couple adjacent VCSEL emitters.

A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) device comprising a VCSEL emitter having a waveguide with a guided portion and an antiguided portion is disclosed. The guided and antiguided portions may select and confine a mode of the VCSEL emitter. The antiguided portion may also be used to coherently couple adjacent VCSEL emitters.

To achieve high-power single transverse mode laser, we here propose a supersymmetry (SUSY)-based triple-ridge waveguide semiconductor laser structure, which is composed of an electrically pumped main broad-ridge waveguide located in the middle and a pair of lossy auxiliary partner waveguides. The auxiliary partner waveguides are designed to provide dissipative modes that can phase match and couple with the higher-order modes in the main waveguide. By appropriately manipulating the gain-loss discrimination of the modes in the laser cavity, one can effectively suppress all the undesired higher-order transverse modes while keeping the fundamental one almost unaffected, thereby ensuring stable single-mode operation with a larger emitting aperture and accordingly a higher output power than a conventional single-transverse-mode ridge waveguide diode laser.