In some implementations, a surface emitting laser may have an emitter design with a short oxidation length and/or a large number of trenches. For example, the surface emitting laser may comprise a metallization layer comprising multiple extended portions extending outwards from a circumference of an inner ring portion, and multiple tabs extending laterally from the multiple extended portions in a partial ring shape. The surface emitting laser may further comprise multiple via openings connecting the metallization layer to a plating metal, where each via opening is positioned over a corresponding tab, of the multiple tabs. The surface emitting laser may comprise multiple oxidation trenches that are each formed in an angular gap between a pair of extended portions, of the multiple extended portions, such that the multiple tabs and the multiple via openings are exclusively outside outer radii of the multiple oxidation trenches.

Disclosed herein are various embodiments for high performance wireless data transfers. In an example embodiment, laser chips are used to support the data transfers using laser signals that encode the data to be transferred. The laser chip can be configured to (1) receive a digital signal and (2) responsive to the received digital signal, generate and emit a variable laser signal, wherein the laser chip comprises a laser-emitting epitaxial structure, wherein the laser-emitting epitaxial structure comprises a plurality of laser-emitting regions within a single mesa structure that generate the variable laser signal. Also disclosed are a number of embodiments for a photonics receiver that can receive and digitize the laser signals produced by the laser chips. Such technology can be used to wireless transfer large data sets such as lidar point clouds at high data rates.

A light emitting element includes: a laminated structural body 20 in which a first compound semiconductor layer 21, an active layer 23, and a second compound semiconductor layer 22 are laminated; a first electrode 31 electrically connected to the first compound semiconductor layer 21; and a second electrode 32 and a second light reflecting layer 42 formed on the second compound semiconductor layer 22, in which a protrusion 43 is formed on the first surface side of the first compound semiconductor layer 21, a smoothing layer 44 is formed on at least the protrusion 43, the protrusion 43 and the smoothing layer 44 constitute a concave mirror portion, a first light reflecting layer 41 is formed on at least a part of the smoothing layer 44, and the second light reflecting layer 42 has a flat shape.

In some implementations, a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) device may include a substrate layer and a set of epitaxial layers disposed on the substrate layer. The set of epitaxial layers may include a first mirror and a second mirror. At least one of the first mirror or the second mirror may include at least one reflector pair that includes a semiconductor material layer and an oxidized semiconductor material layer. The set of epitaxial layers may include an oxidation trench axially extending into at least the second mirror, an active region between the first mirror and the second mirror, and an oxidation layer with an oxidation aperture.

A wafer may comprise a substrate layer and a plurality of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) formed on or within the substrate layer. A respective trench-to-trench distance associated with the plurality of VCSELs may vary across the wafer based on a predicted variation of an oxidation rate of an oxidation layer across the wafer.

A vertical cavity surface emitting device includes a substrate, a first multilayer film reflecting mirror formed on the substrate, a light-emitting structure layer formed on the first multilayer film reflecting mirror, the light-emitting structure layer including a light-emitting layer; and a second multilayer film reflecting mirror formed on the light-emitting structure layer, the second multilayer film reflecting mirror constituting a resonator between the first multilayer film reflecting mirror and the second multilayer film reflecting mirror. The light-emitting structure layer has a high resistance region and a low resistance region having an electrical resistance lower than an electrical resistance of the high resistance region. The low resistance region has a plurality of partial regions arranged into a ring shape while being separated by the high resistance region in a plane of the light-emitting structure layer.

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

A vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) including a substrate including a plurality of emitters forming an array region, a lower mirror, an upper mirror, an active layer interposed between the lower mirror and the upper mirror, an aperture forming layer interposed between the upper mirror and the active layer and including an oxidation region and a window region, a connector disposed on the upper mirror, a plurality of oxidation holes passing through the upper mirror and the aperture forming layer, an upper insulation layer covering the plurality of oxidation holes, and a pad electrically connected to the connector, in which at least a portion of the connector is disposed in the plurality of oxidation holes, the plurality of emitters is disposed in substantially a honeycomb shape on the substrate, and the pad is formed on one side of the substrate adjacent to the array region.

A semiconductor laser includes an active region, a first distributed-Bragg-reflector region disposed contiguously with the active region, and a second distributed-Bragg-reflector region. The first distributed-Bragg-reflector region is formed contiguously with one side of the active region in a waveguide direction and includes a first diffraction grating. The second distributed-Bragg-reflector region is formed contiguously with to the other side of the active region in the waveguide direction and includes a second diffraction grating. The first diffraction grating includes recessed portions formed through a diffraction grating layer formed in the first distributed-Bragg-reflector region and convex portions adjacent to the recessed portions. The diffraction grating layer is made of a dielectric material.