Monolithically integrated InGaAlAs dielectric reflectors for vertical cavity optoelectronic devices

Monolithically integrated dielectric reflectors have opened up a new field of optoelectronic devices. Vertical cavity lasers in the AlGaAs system are grown by MBE almost as a matter of routine. In this contribution dielectric reflectors composed of InAlAs and InGaAlAs lattice matched to InP are investigated. We achieve reflectivities of 70%, 83%, and 96% using 5, 10, and 20 periods of quarter wavelength layers. Increasing the number to 30 periods results in a maximum reflectivity exceeding 99% at a center wavelength of 1.65 μm. These experimental results indicate that vertical cavity lasers for optical communication systems in the InGaAlAs system are feasible.