Abstract

We report a nano-electromechanical optoelectronic (NEMO) tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with an ultra-thin (145 nm) electrostatically actuated high-index-contrast subwavelength grating (HCG) designed to strongly reflect TE-polarized light. Single mode emission (SMSR >45 dB) and continuous wavelength tuning (~4 nm) were obtained at room temperature with output power up to 2 mW under continuous wave (CW) operation. A record short wavelength tuning time (~90 ns) is experimentally demonstrated, which is >100 times faster than previously reported DBR-based tunable VCSELs and a 1.7 times improvement over the previously reported TM polarized NEMO tunable VCSELs.

© 2008 Optical Society of America

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History
Original Manuscript: June 19, 2008
Manuscript Accepted: August 21, 2008
Revised Manuscript: August 7, 2008
Published: August 27, 2008

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Author Affiliations

Ye Zhou, Michael C. Huang, Connie J. Chang-Hasnain

University of California, Berkeley

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