High-speed lasers for optical interconnects

In the era of cloud computing, with services such as video streaming, social networking, and online storage and file sharing, the demand for online data processing and storage capacity is growing rapidly. These services are hosted in huge data centers that need not only fast servers but also fast communication between servers. Because copper cables have high attenuation at high frequencies, the most promising solution is to use fiber optical links (called optical interconnects) to connect different parts of the data center. Today, gallium arsenide-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) emitting at 850 nm are the standard light source in transmitters used in commercially available optical interconnects, operating at up to 14 Gbit/s with a link length of up to 300 m. These lasers have the advantages of low power consumption, fast direct modulation at low currents, and low-cost manufacturing. To keep up with the demand of increasing optical interconnect capacity, the Photonics Laboratory at Chalmers university of Technology is conducting research into improving the speed, reach and capacity of VCSELs for optical interconnects