Photoreflectance spectroscopy study of vertical cavity surface emitting laser structures

This paper summarises the application of the laser-based electro-absorptive technique of photoreflectance (PR) for the study of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). PR results are shown to reveal the technologically important cavity mode and ground state quantum well exciton structures. AlGaAs/GaAs based quantum well VCSELs were examined with and without top mirror layers as a function of laser pump excitation conditions, with results compared with angle-dependent PR data. Cavity mode and quantum well alignments were also studied with reference to the un-modulated reflectance signal as well as correlated with photoluminescence data. The results demonstrate the importance of PR metrology for state-of-art VCSEL characterisation