Dongho Shin

US Patent:

61544809, Nov 28, 2000

Filed:

May 6, 1998

Appl. No.:

9/073579

Inventors:

Robert Magnusson - Arlington TX
Preston P. Young - Arlington TX
Dongho Shin - Arlington TX

Assignee:

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System - Austin TX

International Classification:

H01S 308

US Classification:

372 96

Abstract:

A new class of vertical-cavity lasers (VCLs) is disclosed. Conventional VCLs contain an active region enclosed by Bragg-mirror stacks of 30-100 quarter-wave layers. The new VCLs can be fabricated without Bragg mirrors by replacing them with efficient diffractive (guided-mode resonance (GMR)) mirrors with much fewer layers, for example, two or three layers. This application provides optical power flow across and along the VCL gain region, thereby greatly increasing the laser efficiency and reducing the threshold mirror reflectance needed for lasing, relative to conventional VCLs. Theoretical and experimental results show that GMR mirrors exhibit high reflectance (theoretically, 100%; experimentally, in excess of 90%) in a narrow spectral band with well-defined polarization states. When incorporated in VCLs, the GMR mirrors yield single-mode, narrow-line, highly-polarized output light. The GMR-VCL is independent of any particular material system.