Surface emitting laser, and transceiver, optical transceiver, and optical communication system employing the surface emitting laser

Abstract

A surface emitting laser includes a lower semiconductor multilayer mirror formed of a plurality of pairs of a high-refractive-index area and a low-refractive-index area; an active layer vertically sandwiched by cladding layers; a current confinement layer of Al z Ga 1-z As having an oxide area in a peripheral portion of the current confinement layer, where 0.95≦z≦1; and an upper semiconductor multilayer mirror formed of a plurality of pairs of a high-refractive-index area and a low-refractive-index area. The low-refractive-index area of at least one of the lower semiconductor multilayer mirror and the upper semiconductor multilayer mirror includes an Al z1 Ga 1-z1 As layer with a thickness thinner than that of the current confinement layer, where z≦z1.

1 . A transceiver comprising:
 an optical transmitting unit that includes
 a surface emitting laser that emits a laser beam in a wavelength range between 1.2 micrometers and 1.6 micrometers in a vertical direction with respect to a semiconductor substrate; and 
 a control circuit that controls a current injected into the surface emitting laser based on an electric signal input; and 
   an optical receiving unit that includes a photoelectric conversion element that receives an optical signal input from outside, and converts the optical signal into an electric signal, wherein   the surface emitting laser includes
 an active layer stacked on the semiconductor substrate; 
 a reflection-side semiconductor-multilayer-mirror having a reflectivity of equal to or more than 99.9 percent with respect to the laser beam; and 
 an emission-side semiconductor-multilayer-mirror having a reflectivity of equal to or more than 99.4 percent and equal to or less than 99.8 percent with respect to the laser beam. 
   
     
     
         2 . An optical transceiver comprising:
 a surface emitting laser that emits a laser beam in a wavelength range between 1.2 micrometers and 1.6 micrometers in a vertical direction with respect to a semiconductor substrate;   a signal multiplexing circuit that multiplexes a plurality of electric signals;   a control circuit that controls the surface emitting laser based on an electric signal output from the signal multiplexing circuit;   a photoelectric conversion element that receives an optical signal input from outside, and converts the optical signal into an electric signal; and   a signal demultiplexing circuit that demultiplexes the electric signal output from the photoelectric conversion element into a plurality of electric signals, wherein   the surface emitting laser includes
 an active layer stacked on the semiconductor substrate; 
 a reflection-side semiconductor-multilayer-mirror having a reflectivity of equal to or more than 99.9 percent with respect to the laser beam; and 
 an emission-side semiconductor-multilayer-mirror having a reflectivity of equal to or more than 99.4 percent and equal to or less than 99.8 percent with respect to the laser beam. 
   
     
     
         3 . An optical communication system comprising:
 a surface emitting laser that emits a laser beam in a wavelength range between 1.2 micrometers and 1.6 micrometers in a vertical direction with respect to a semiconductor substrate;   a control circuit that controls the surface emitting laser;   an optical fiber that transmits an optical signal emitted from the surface emitting laser; and   a photoelectric conversion element that receives the optical signal from the optical fiber, and converts the optical signal into an electric signal, wherein   the surface emitting laser includes
 an active layer stacked on the semiconductor substrate; 
 a reflection-side semiconductor-multilayer-mirror having a reflectivity of equal to or more than 99.9 percent with respect to the laser beam; and 
 an emission-side semiconductor-multilayer-mirror having a reflectivity of equal to or more than 99.4 percent and equal to or less than 99.8 percent with respect to the laser beam.