Patent ID: 7916768

Claim:
A Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL), comprising: an optical cavity bounded by a top mirror and a bottom mirror, wherein the top mirror has multiple layers of alternating refractive index, of which a bottom three or more layers of the top mirror are deep oxidation layers having an increased oxidation length, in order to reduce parasitic capacitance in the VCSEL; a light emitting and amplifying active region, between the top mirror and the bottom mirror, for generating and amplifying light that is reflected by the top mirror and the bottom mirror to form at least one optical mode in the optical cavity, wherein the optical mode is an electromagnetic field intensity pattern of the light measured in a plane perpendicular to a propagation direction of the light; and an aperture with tapered edges, between the active region and the top mirror, having a thickness, a taper length, an aperture length, a taper angle, and an aperture opening diameter designed to reduce the optical mode's diameter without significantly increasing the optical mode's round trip scattering loss.