GaN Laser Diode Technology for Visible-Light Communications
Stephen P. Najda, P. Perlin, Tadek Suski, Łucja Marona, Mike Leszczyński, Przemek Wisniewski, Szymon Stańczyk, Dario Schiavon, Thomas J. Slight, Malcolm Watson, Steffan Gwyn, Anthony E. Kelly, Scott Watson
Abstract
Gallium nitride (GaN) laser diodes (LDs) are considered for visible light communications (VLC) in free space, underwater, and in plastic optical fibers (POFs). A review of recent results is presented, showing high-frequency operation of AlGaInN laser diodes with data transmission rates up to 2.5 Gbit/s in free space and underwater and high bandwidths of up to 1.38 GHz through 10 m of plastic optical fiber. Distributed feedback (DFB) GaN LDs are fabricated to achieve single-frequency operation. We report on single-wavelength emissions of GaN DFB LDs with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) in excess of 35 dB.