Surface emitting semiconductor laser
AssigneeFuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
InventorYasuji Seko
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A surface emitting semiconductor laser and a surface emitting semiconductor laser array having a photodetector capable of monitoring the light output of a laser easily at a high speed without deteriorating the performance of a surface emitting laser. An n type GaAs optical absorbing layer having an opening in the center of a waveguide path is inserted between the p type DBR layer and the spacer layer of the surface emitting semiconductor laser as a light receiving part and a PD electrode which takes out electrons generated in this optical absorbing layer is formed on the optical absorbing layer.
Claims15
A surface emitting semiconductor laser which has an active region, a pair of spacer layers sandwiching the active region, a pair of DBR mirrors sandwiching the pair of spacer layers, and a pair of laser drive electrodes sandwiching a region including at least the pair of spacer layers and which outputs laser light from an optical waveguide path in the laser by applying voltage to the laser drive electrodes, and also has a photodetector, the photodetector comprising:
- a light receiving part which is provided at least in the optical waveguide path except the centerline of the optical waveguide path, and generates carriers by absorbing laser light emitted from the active layer;
- and
- a light receiving part electrode which takes out the carriers generated by the light receiving part.
A surface emitting semiconductor laser array, comprising:
- surface emitting semiconductor lasers disposed in an array on the same substrate, each surface emitting semiconductor laser having an active region, a pair of spacer layers sandwiching the active region, a pair of DBR mirrors sandwiching the pair of spacer layers, a pair of laser drive electrodes sandwiching at least a region including the pair of spacer layers, and a light receiving part which generates carriers by absorbing the laser beam emitted from the active layer and is formed on at least part of the peripheral portion of an optical waveguide path which the laser beam is passed through;
- and
- a light receiving part electrode which is electrically connected to all or some of the light receiving layers of the surface emitting semiconductor lasers to detect the carriers generated at the light receiving part.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.