Stable polarization control of 980 nm high-power vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers using sub-wavelength rectangular-metal-gratings

The polarization control of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with high power emission is demonstrated by using metal-grating to import non-isotropic gain. The grating with a period of 186 nm and a duty ratio of 0.5 was fabricated on the GaAs-cap layer to provide additional reflectance for TE polarization. The pairs of p-DBRs were reduced and the GaAs-cap between grating stripes was etched to force the current to be injected linearly along grating stripes to realize the maximum non-isotropic gain. A polarization ratio of 4.8, an output power of 780 mW and high temperature performance were demonstrated for a 550 μm aperture device.