Single-Mode Oxide-Confined VCSEL for Printers and Sensors

The 850nm single-mode oxide-confined VCSEL with a metal aperture as a spatial mode filter is reported. The OPTALO (optical probing technique for AlAs lateral oxidation) process was adopted to manufacture a small oxide aperture in VCSEL with high reproducibility. The combination of a metal-aperture and an oxide-aperture brought good performance to 850nm single-mode VCSEL. The fundamental transverse mode oscillation was obtained up to 4.7mW output power. The SMSR is larger than 27dB. No kinks in the L-I curves were observed under -40 to 95degC temperature range. The laser beam is selectively polarized in parallel to the lang0.1-1rang orientation of the GaAs substrate. We also developed the 780nm single-mode VCSEL array (8times4) for laser beam printer application. The polygon scanner system incorporating this 780nm single-mode VCSEL array made it possible to achieve 2400 DPI high dense printing together with 80ppm high speed print