Surface-emitting lasers for parallel data transmission and data storage

Low threshold vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) have been developed for future parallel optoelectronics, including optical interconnects. The research field of surface emitting lasers is growing up rapidly and micro-amperes low threshold devices have been realized. In this paper, we present some of our results on 980 nm GaInAs/GaAs surface emitting lasers for parallel data transmission. Specifically, we describe some attempts to improved device performances, which include low electric resistance p-type DBRs and p-type delta doping in quantum wells. We demonstrate a penalty-free 10 Gbit/s data transmission. Also, VCSELs grown on (311) GaAs substrates have been developed for stable polarization control, which will give us low noise operations. In addition, we discuss a possibility of a novel VCSEL optical head toward Tera bytes optical memories using scanning near-field optics.