Blue lasing at room temperature in an optically pumped lattice-matched AlInN/GaN VCSEL structure

Laser action with low threshold average pump power density (∼50 W · cm−2) at room temperature is reported for a crack-free planar vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) structure based on a bottom lattice-matched AlInN/GaN distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and a top dielectric DBR. The cavity region, formed by n- and p-type GaN layers surrounding only three InGaN/GaN quantum wells, corresponds to a typical active region suitable for an electrically driven VCSEL. In addition to low threshold, a spontaneous emission coupling factor β∼2×10−3 is derived for this ready-to-be-processed laser structure.