Single-Mode Electrically Pumped Liquid Crystal VCSELs with Mode-Hop-Free Tuning over 30 nm

IF 6.7 1区物理与天体物理 Q1 MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

ACS Photonics Pub Date : 2025-10-17 DOI:10.1021/acsphotonics.5c01687

Ning Cui, Zhanguo Shi, Huihui Wang, Hongzhuo Wang, Jisheng Wang, Tianyao Zhang, Baolu Guan

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Abstract

Electrically pumped liquid crystal (LC) tunable VCSELs hold transformative potential for optical coherence tomography (OCT), spectroscopy, LiDAR, and high-speed optical communications. However, conventional optical pumping LC systems suffer from bulkiness, inflexibility, and scalability limitations. Herein, we propose a fully electrically pumped LC-tunable VCSEL (ELC-VCSEL) with a three-electrode design and an inner LC-coupled cavity. Through COMSOL simulations and structural optimization, we comprehensively evaluated the effects of mode competition and LC birefringence characteristics on the wavelength tuning range. This device achieves a 30.8 nm mode-hop-free tuning range (1044.5–1075.3 nm) at 3 mA via a precisely designed LC modulation layer that suppresses mode competition. Simultaneously, the proposed ELC-VCSEL exhibits excellent single-mode characteristics, with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 33.7 dB and a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 0.19 nm. By eliminating external pumping to reduce costs and power consumption, the ELC-VCSEL could further expand its practical applicability in electro-optic systems, biomedical sensing, optical communications, and fast-response optical instruments.

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单模电泵液晶VCSELs与模式跳跃自由调谐超过30纳米

电泵浦液晶（LC）可调谐vcsel在光学相干层析成像（OCT）、光谱学、激光雷达和高速光通信方面具有变革潜力。然而，传统的光泵浦LC系统存在体积大、不灵活和可扩展性的限制。在此，我们提出了一种全电泵lc可调谐VCSEL (lc -VCSEL)，具有三电极设计和内部lc耦合腔。通过COMSOL仿真和结构优化，综合评价了模式竞争和LC双折射特性对波长调谐范围的影响。该器件通过精确设计的LC调制层抑制模式竞争，在3ma下实现30.8 nm的无模式跳变调谐范围（1044.5-1075.3 nm）。同时，ELC-VCSEL具有优异的单模特性，其侧模抑制比（SMSR）为33.7 dB，半峰全宽（FWHM）为0.19 nm。通过消除外部泵浦以降低成本和功耗，ELC-VCSEL可以进一步扩大其在电光系统、生物医学传感、光通信和快速响应光学仪器中的实际适用性。

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来源期刊

ACS Photonics NANOSCIENCE & NANOTECHNOLOGY-MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

CiteScore

11.90

自引率

5.70%

发文量

438

审稿时长

2.3 months

期刊介绍： Published as soon as accepted and summarized in monthly issues, ACS Photonics will publish Research Articles, Letters, Perspectives, and Reviews, to encompass the full scope of published research in this field.