Single-Mode VCSEL Transmission for Short Reach Communications
Ming-Jun Li, Kangmei Li, Xin Chen, Snigdharaj Mishra, Adrian A. Juarez, Jason E. Hurley, Jeffery S. Stone, Chia-Hsuan Wang, Hao-Tien Cheng, Chao‐Hsin Wu, Hao‐Chung Kuo, C.S. Tsai, Gong‐Ru Lin
Abstract
Single-mode VCSEL technology has advanced significantly in the past few years. The advantages of single-mode VCSELs lie primarily on the narrower linewidth, lower numerical aperture, and smaller spot size compared to multimode VCSELs. They are suitable for transmitting over both multimode fibers and few-mode fibers. For multimode fiber systems, the narrow linewidth can reduce the chromatic dispersion penalty and increase the system reach. A single-mode VCSEL also allows the coupling into graded-index single-mode fiber, which is few-mode around 850 nm with high bandwidth, for few-mode transmission. We review recent progress and present new experimental results and modeling analyses of single-mode VCSEL transmission over both types of fibers. The experiments and analyses shed new light on how single-mode VCSELs can be used with multimode fibers and graded-index single-mode fibers and relative merits between 850 nm single-mode VCSELs versus 980 nm and 1060 nm single-mode VCSELs to address the needs of various applications.