Suppression of higher-order transverse modes in vertical-cavity lasers by impurity-induced disordering

Etched pillar, bottom emitting vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) employing a zinc diffused and disordered spatial mode filter are fabricated and tested. The filters successfully suppress lasing of higher order transverse modes in VCSELs with diameters greater than 11 /spl mu/m, while obtaining output powers of up to 1.5 mW with threshold currents as low as 2.7 mA. Emission is entirely single mode, with mode suppression ratio greater than 25 dB up to the highest output power levels.