A simple and precise method for the threshold current determination in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Abstract

In this paper, we present experimental results of spontaneous emission clamping in the threshold for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with oxide current confinement. We show that the spontaneous emission not wholly clamps in the threshold. We propose a new method for determining the threshold current value using the study of the clamping phenomena. This method has an advantage over the commonly used methods in the accuracy because the current of the spontaneous emission clamping is betted defined than the current of the slope change of the stimulated emission light-current curve. The estimated uncertainty of the method is no more than 20 µA.