Abstract

Availability of two-dimensional source arrays with focused (or collimated) beams is essential for a host of optical information processing, interconnection and communication applications. The advent of vertical cavity surface emitting laser arrays (VC-SELAs)^[1,2], for example, creates new possibilities of integration and miniaturization in above applications. In addition, the trend in making such laser arrays matrix addressable could eliminate the need for external amplitude spatial light modulators (SLMs)^[3]. In order to make the beams from VC-SELAs suitable for applications such as interconnection, however, their output beams need to be focused (or collimated) (which would otherwise be diverging due to diffraction). Here, we present results of integrating easy to fabricate Fresnel microlens arrays (FMAs) with VC-SELAs by patterning the former on the laser substrate. We used such lenses to collimate beams of individual lasers.(We note that collimation is a case of focusing.)

© 1990 Optical Society of America