Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with asymmetric aperture for improved polarization stability

An emitter, comprising:

• a cavity region to generate light,
• wherein the cavity region is to cause a first resonance wavelength of a first portion of the light having a first polarization to be offset from a gain peak of the emitter by a first amount, and
• wherein the cavity region is to cause a second resonance wavelength of a second portion of the light having a second polarization to be offset from the gain peak of the emitter by a second amount that is different from the first amount;
• and
• a confinement layer that forms a confinement aperture,
• wherein the confinement aperture has a non-rotationally symmetric shape to cause spectral separation of the first resonance wavelength and the second resonance wavelength.

A device comprising:

• a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL), comprising:
• a substrate;
• a first mirror structure;
• a cavity region to generate light, wherein one or more characteristics of the cavity region cause a resonance wavelength of a first portion of the light and a resonance wavelength of a second portion of the light to be offset from a gain peak of the VCSEL by at least a threshold amount,
• wherein a polarization of the first portion of the light is different from a polarization of the second portion of the light, and
• wherein the resonance wavelength of the first portion of the light is different from the resonance wavelength of the second portion of the light;
• a confinement layer that forms a confinement aperture, wherein a shape of the confinement aperture causes separation of the resonance wavelength of the first portion of the light and the resonance wavelength of the second portion of the light;
• a second mirror structure over the confinement layer;
• and
• one or more layers that form an output aperture over the second mirror structure.