Anomalous lasing of high-speed 850 nm InGaAlAs oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with a large negative gain-to-cavity wavelength detuning

The impact of a large negative quantum well gain-to-cavity etalon wavelength detuning on the static and dynamic characteristics of 850 nm InGaAlAs high-speed oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) was investigated. Three distinct lasing regimes were revealed in large square aperture (≥7 μm per side) devices with large detuning including: (1) an anomalous lasing via higher order Hermite–Gaussian modes at low forward bias current; (2) lasing via the lowest order Hermite–Gaussian modes at high bias current; and (3) simultaneous lasing via both types of transverse modes at intermediate bias currents. In contrast to conventional multimode VCSELs a two-resonance modulation response was observed for the case of co-lasing via multiple transverse modes with high spectral separation. The reduction in the oxide aperture area resulted in classical lasing via the lowest order modes with a conventional single-resonance frequency response.