Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers and quantum dot lasers

TL;DR

This review discusses the development and properties of quantum dot vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (QD VECSELs), highlighting recent technological advances and their potential for quantum nanophotonics and integrated circuits.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of both fundamental and technological aspects of QD VECSELs, including recent developments and future guidelines.

Findings

Advances in QD VECSEL fabrication techniques.

Insights into strong coupling in QD cavity systems.

Guidelines for future quantum nanophotonic device development.

Abstract

The use of cavity to manipulate photon emission of quantum dots (QDs) has been opening unprecedented opportunities for realizing quantum functional nanophotonic devices and also quantum information devices. In particular, in the field of semiconductor lasers, QDs were introduced as a superior alternative to quantum wells to suppress the temperature dependence of the threshold current in vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs). In this work, a review of properties and development of semiconductor VECSEL devices and QD laser devices is given. Based on the features of VECSEL devices, the main emphasis is put on the recent development of technological approach on semiconductor QD VECSELs. Then, from the viewpoint of both single QD nanolaser and cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), a single-QD-cavity system resulting from the strong coupling of QD cavity is presented. A difference of this review from the other existing works on semiconductor VECSEL devices is that we will cover both the fundamental aspects and technological approaches of QD VECSEL devices. And lastly, the presented review here has provided a deep insight into useful guideline for the development of QD VECSEL technology and future quantum functional nanophotonic devices and monolithic photonic integrated circuits (MPhICs).