High-intensity C-shaped nanoaperture vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with controlled polarization

The authors designed and demonstrated a C-shaped nanoaperture (C aperture) vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with a maximum far-field power of 157 mu W coming from a 70 nm C aperture. Simulation shows that the near-field full width at half maximum spot size at 30 nm away from the C aperture is 94x108 nm(2) in X and Y directions. The authors estimate the peak near-field intensity from the C-aperture VCSEL to be as high as 19 mW/mu m(2). This high intensity and small spot size are promising for realizing near-field applications such as near-field imaging and ultradense near-field optical data storage. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.