Graded Metal-Oxide Layers in Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser

A method of forming a vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) comprising:

• (a) forming a bottom Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR);
• (b) forming a cavity layer on the bottom DBR;
• (c) forming on a side of the cavity layer opposite the bottom DBR a current confinement layer;
• and
• (d) forming on a side of the cavity layer opposite the bottom DBR a top DBR comprising multiple pairs of alternating layers with different refractive indices, wherein a subset of said multiple pairs of alternating layers includes alternating layers of decreasing concentration of at least one metal from lower layers of the top DBR disposed closer to the cavity layer to upper layers of the top DBR disposed further from the cavity layer, wherein the current confinement layer is disposed:
• between the cavity layer and the top DBR;
• or
• within the layers of the top DBR, with the subset of said multiple pairs of alternating layers that include alternating layers of decreasing concentration of the at least one metal from the lower layers of the top DBR to the upper layers of the top DBR is disposed (i) between the cavity layer and the current confinement layer or (ii) on a side of the current confinement layer opposite the cavity layer.

A vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) including a stack of semiconductor layers comprising:

• a bottom Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR);
• a cavity layer on the bottom DBR;
• a current confinement layer on a side of the cavity layer opposite the bottom DBR;
• and a top DBR on a side of the cavity layer opposite the bottom DBR, wherein the top DBR comprises multiple pairs of alternating layers with different refractive indices, wherein a subset of said multiple pairs of alternating layers includes alternating layers of increasing metal concentration from upper layers of the top DBR to bottom layers of the top DBR.