Tunable micromachined vertical cavity surface emittinglaser

A tunable vertical cavity surface emitting laser with a record 15 nm wavelength tuning for an applied voltage of only 5.7 V is reported. Both red and blue shift are obtained. The device uses a micromachined cantilever to freely suspend a portion of the upper mirror reflector. The cantilever may be electrostatically deflected towards the substrate, to tune the resonant wavelength of the laser microcavity.