Systems and methods disclosed herein include a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) device that includes an anode, a cathode, and one or more curved apertures located in an epitaxial layer between the anode and the cathode, each of the one or more curved apertures having an aperture edge and one or more oxidation bridges crossing the curved aperture that allow current to flow inside the curved aperture, in which when a current signal is applied to the VCSEL, current flow between the anode and the cathode is distributed along the aperture edge of the one or more curved apertures.

An embodiment relates to a surface emitting laser device and a light emitting device including the same. The surface emitting laser device according to the embodiment may include a first reflective layer; an active layer disposed on the first reflective layer; an active region disposed on the active layer and having an aperture and an insulation region disposed around the aperture; and a second reflective layer disposed on the active region. The second reflective layer may include a core reflective layer disposed in a position vertically corresponding to the aperture. The embodiment may include a cladding insulation layer disposed around the core reflective layer. The horizontal cross-section of the aperture may be different from the horizontal cross-section of the core reflective layer.

A vertical cavity surface emitting laser according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes a substrate having a main surface including a III-V group compound semiconductor and a semiconductor structure having a post disposed on the main surface. The main surface has an off-angle greater than 2° with respect to a plane. The post includes an active layer and a current confinement layer that are arranged in a first direction intersecting the main surface. The current confinement layer includes an aperture portion and an insulation portion surrounding the aperture portion. The current confinement layer has a uniaxially symmetric shape or an asymmetric shape in a section perpendicular to the first direction.

An on-chip miniarray of optically-coupled oxide-confined apertures of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) is realized by etching holes from the chip surface down to at least one aperture layer. Oxidation of the aperture layer results in electrically-isolated apertures suitable for current injection. The lateral distance between the aperture centers and the shape of the aperture is chosen to result in effective interaction of the neighboring optical modes in the related aperture regions through optical field coupling effect causing the interaction-induced splitting of the wavelengths of the optical modes. At least one aperture has a different surface area due to different spacing of the etched holes. Different aperture sizes result in different wavelengths of the coupled modes. Splitting of the cavity modes in a frequency domain 3-100 GHz extends the modulation bandwidth of the device due to photon-photon interaction effects.

Selective deposition of highly reflective coating and/or anti-reflecting coating over apertures of different VCSELs foiining a miniarray allows stabilizing lasing in a single coherent mode of the array. Most preferably, highly reflective coating covers the largest aperture and stabilizes the fundamental mode of the coherent array. Anti-reflecting coatings can be deposited on at least one other aperture to reduce the photon lifetime and increase the homogeneous broadening of the related resonant wavelength. Consequently broadening of the photon-photon interaction resonances between the cavity modes can be controlled. Such resonance broadening allows control over the shape of the current modulation curve of the miniarray of VCSELs with the frequency maximum defined by the splitting of the cavity modes and the broadening defined by the broadening of the photon resonances. An increase in −3dB modulation bandwidth of the VCSEL miniarray up to at least 70 GHz is possible.

Such miniarray of VCSELs enables efficient coupling of the emitted light to a multimode optical fiber with the efficiency of at least 70%.

A surface emitting laser includes a first reflective layer, an active layer provided on the first reflective layer, and a second reflective layer provided on the active layer. The first reflective layer, the active layer, and the second reflective layer form a mesa, and the mesa has an electrically insulating region and an electrically conductive region. The electrically insulating region is positioned at a center portion of the mesa in a surface direction, and the electrically conductive region includes the first reflective layer, the active layer, and the second reflective layer and is positioned outside the electrically insulating region in such a manner as to surround the electrically insulating region.

A vertical cavity surface-emitting laser configured to emit laser light having a wavelength of 830 nm to 910 nm includes a substrate having a main surface including GaAs, a first distributed Bragg reflector, an active layer, and a second distributed Bragg reflector. The substrate, the first distributed Bragg reflector, the active layer, and the second distributed Bragg reflector are arranged in a first axis direction intersecting the main surface. The main surface has an off angle of 6° or more with respect to a (100) plane. The active layer includes In.sub.xAl.sub.yGa.sub.1-x-yAs (0<x<1, 0≤y<1). The active layer has a strain. An absolute value of the strain is 0.5% to 1.4%.

A light-emitting element includes a mesa structure in which a first compound semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, an active layer, and a second compound semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type are disposed in that order, wherein at least one of the first compound semiconductor layer and the second compound semiconductor layer has a current constriction region surrounded by an insulation region extending inward from a sidewall portion of the mesa structure; a wall structure disposed so as to surround the mesa structure; at least one bridge structure connecting the mesa structure and the wall structure, the wall structure and the bridge structure each having the same layer structure as the portion of the mesa structure in which the insulation region is provided; a first electrode; and a second electrode disposed on a top face of the wall structure.

A semiconductor optical amplifier includes: a light source part that is formed on a substrate, the substrate including a substrate surface; and an optical amplification part that amplifies propagation light propagating in a predetermined direction from the light source part and that emits the propagation light amplified in an emission direction intersecting with the substrate surface, the optical amplification part including a conductive region extending in the predetermined direction from the light source part along the substrate surface and a non-conductive region formed on a periphery of the conductive region, the conductive region including a reflection part that reflects the propagation light in a direction intersecting with the predetermined direction when viewed from a direction vertical to the substrate surface.

A pixel structure for a vertical cavity surface emitting laser has an emission window. The pixel structure includes a plurality of sub-pixels in the emission window. Bright-area sub-pixels emit light and dark-area sub-pixels having no light emission. The bright-area sub-pixels and the dark-area sub-pixels are arranged in a pattern in the emission window. Various patterns are possible. Different structures for implementing the sub-pixels are described.

Systems and methods disclosed herein include a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) device that includes an anode, a cathode, and one or more curved apertures located in an epitaxial layer between the anode and the cathode, each of the one or more curved apertures having an aperture edge and one or more oxidation bridges crossing the curved aperture that allow current to flow inside the curved aperture, in which when a current signal is applied to the VCSEL, current flow between the anode and the cathode is distributed along the aperture edge of the one or more curved apertures.