Large aperture vertical cavity surface emitting laser with distributed-ring contact

To overcome the serious current crowding effect in top-emitting vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) with large aperture, a distributed-ring-contact (DRC) VCSEL is proposed and demonstrated. A maximal cw light output power of more than 0.3 W and a wall-plug efficiency of 17.4% are achieved for a 300 μm-diameter VCSEL. The DRC VCSEL exhibits a more homogeneous emission profile, and the laser emits at 803.3 nm with a narrow spectrum (less than 0.2 nm FWHM).