650-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for plastic optical fiber communication

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are widely used as light sources for high-speed communications. This is mainly due to their economical cost, high bandwidth, and scalability. However, efficient red VCSELs with emissions at 650 nm are required for plastic optical fiber (POF) technology because of the low-loss transmission window centered around this wavelength. This study investigates using 650-nm red VCSEL arrays in interconnected systems for POF communication to improve signal quality and increase data rates. The experimental results show that using one red VCSEL with a –3-dB bandwidth of 2 GHz in POF communication can achieve data rates of up to 4.7 Gb/s with 2 pJ/bit power efficiency using direct current-biased optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM). The bit error ratio (BER) is 3.6×10^−3, which is less than the hard-decision forward-error correction (FEC) limit of 3.8 × 10⁻³. In addition, temperature dependence measurements of the VCSEL have been presented from 15^◦C to 38^◦C. The essential parameters of VCSEL have also been measured: the maximum optical power is 2.5 mW, and the power conversion efficiency is 14%.