Monolithic Integration of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers with In-Plane Waveguides

The ability to couple light from a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser into a planar, on-chip waveguide creates new opportunities for achieving higher levels of integration and functionality. Here we propose to use a strong grating etched into a waveguide defined into the top layer of the epitaxially grown structure, so that epitaxial regrowth is not required. By introducing a defect mode into the cavity we were able to achieve a 40% coupling efficiency even though light is coupled through a ninety degrees bend. We also show that polarization control of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser is enhanced by coupling to the defect mode. Calculations were performed using the finite-difference time-domain method.