MEMS-VCSEL as a tunable light source for OCT imaging of long working distance

We present a wavelength tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) constructed by die-bonding a half-cavity InGaAs laser diode (LD) chip onto a silicon-on-insulator chip with a microelectromechanical system electrostatic diaphragm mirror that functions as a Fabry–Perot interferometer. As a result of the short cavity length, the integrated tunable LD has single-mode lasing characteristics with an extremely large coherence length of 150 m or more. The developed wavelength tunable LD is used to perform swept-source optical coherence tomography with a large scan depth, which is applicable to ophthalmic observation for the diagnosis of pathologic nearsightedness based on the measurement of the axial length of an eye.