A New Pathway to InP SWIR VCSELs Through Nanoporous Engineering

The absence of a manufacturable distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror that is compatible with the high-gain active region has been a major obstacle in the commercialization of short-wave infrared (SWIR) VCSELs. To address this, we propose a conductivity-selective electrochemical porosification process which led to the realization of high-index-contrast InP DBRs. Furthermore, continuous-wave (CW) operation of NP-InP VCSELs were demonstrated at both 1,380 and 1,550 nm from two separate structures with milli-watts output power.