Synergistic effect of proton irradiation and electrical stress on high-speed 850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

The synergistic effect significantly impact VCSEL ' s reliability for potential applications in spatial data communication. The synergistic effect of 3 MeV proton irradiation and electrical stress on 850 nm high-speed VCSELs is investigated. The degradation of VCSEL slow down under the influence of bias current. However, device degradation is more pronounced during irradiation under high bias current density. Low frequency noise (LFN) analysis results indicate that defects induced by proton irradiation are the primary cause of the optical-electrical parameter degradation in the device. The bias current density significantly influences the final defect yield, leading to variations in the degree of degradation after irradiation at different bias currents. At a bias current density of 6.03 x 10 5 A/m 2 , the degradation of the modulation bandwidth is reduced in comparison to the unbiased state. A mechanism investigation into the synergistic effect of proton irradiation and electrical stress on VCSELs lends support for accurately evaluating the radiation hardness of optical communication system composed of VCSELs in harsh radiation environments.