High performance edge-emitting microlasers with deeply etched distributed B
ragg reflectors (DBRs) were fabricated on an AlGaAs-GaAs laser structure wi
th a single GaInAs quantum dot (QD) active layer. Mirror reflectivities wel
l above 90% were achieved by third-order narrow air-gap Bragg reflectors wi
th lambda /4 air-gaps. DBR lasers with 160-mum-long cavities and cleaved mi
rrors on one side show differential efficiencies of 0.87 W/A and output pow
ers of more than 50 mW at 980-nm emission wavelength in continuous wave (CW
) operation at room temperature. With deeply etched DBRs on both sides of t
he cavity CW operating microlasers with cavity lengths down to 16 mum could
be realized with a minimum threshold current of 1.2 mA for a 30-mum cavity
length. All lasers are emitting at the QD ground state at room temperature
. Twenty-pm-long devices show CW threshold currents of about 3 mA, output p
owers above I mW, and single mode emission with > 25 dB, sidemode suppressi
on ratios, First, high-frequency measurements were performed proving that t
hese QD microlasers are well suited for large-scale integrated high-speed o
ptical data processing with modulation frequencies well above 10 GHz.