Abstract

Multimode optical fiber data links have traditionally used light-emitting diodes (LED) as the optical source. The LED is an ideal source for most applications, but as data rate increases, it becomes increasing necessary to find another "LED-like" device that has higher speed and power. In searching for the next generation optical source for data links, we saw the potential of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) as the high performance and yet inexpensive upgrade to the venerable LED. The work on VCSEL at Hewlett-Packard focused on large-area multimode/filamentary devices that yield spectra widths of 4-7 Å. This wide linewidth allows for >7 dB of mode-selective loss (MSL) tolerance at a BER of 10⁻¹ @ 622 Mbps.¹ In this talk we will present results on the design, growth, and characteristics of large area VCSELs at both 980 nm and 850 nm.

© 1996 Optical Society of America