Micromechanical tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We report the study on a short wavelength-tunable vertical-cavitysurface-emitting laser utilizing a monolithically integrated bridge tuningmicroelectromechanical system. A deformable-bridge top mirrorsuspended above an active region is utilized. Applied bridge-substrate biasproduces an electrostatic force which reduces the spacing ofair-gap and tunes the resonant wavelength toward a shorter wavelength(blue-shift). Good laser characteristics are obtained: such as continuous tuningranges over 11 nm near 940 nm for 0--9 V tuning bias, the peak output powernear 1 mW and the full-width-half-maximum limited to approximately3.2--6.8 nm. A detailed simulation of the micromechanical and opticalcharacteristics of these devices is performed, and the ratio ofbridge displacement to wavelength shift has been found to be 3:1.