Growth and Characterization of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers Grown on (311)A-Oriented GaAs Substrates by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

We have fabricated InGaAs/GaAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) grown on GaAs(311)A substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. High-quality crystals for VCSEL structures on (311)A having flat and smooth heterointerfaces were obtained by optimizing the growth conditions. It was experimentally demonstrated that the optical anisotropic gain of (311)-oriented strained-layer quantum wells is effective for polarization control. A [*BAR*2*BAR*33] polarization mode is stable against the injection currents of 3 times the threshold. In addition, the threshold current density of 80 A/(cm 2 ·well) is achieved for a device with a laser aperture as large as 25 µ m square, which is comparable to or even lower than that of (100)-oriented VCSELs.