Impact of relative intensity noise of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers on optics-based micromachined audio and seismic sensors.

The relative intensity noise of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) in the 100 mHz to 50 kHz frequency range is experimentally investigated using two representative single-mode VCSELs. Measurements in this frequency range are relevant to recently developed optical-based micromachined acoustic and accelerometer sensing structures that utilize VCSELs as the light source to form nearly monolithic 1 mm3 packages. Although this frequency regime is far lower than the gigahertz range relevant to optical communication applications for which VCSELs are primarily designed, the intensity noise is found to be low and well within the range of cancellation using basic reference detection principles.