VCSEL DEVICE FOR AN SMI SENSOR FOR RECORDING THREE-DIMENSIONAL PICTURES

The invention relates to a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) device (100) for a self-mixing interference sensor (300) for recording three-dimensional pictures, the VCSEL device (100) comprises a VCSEL array, a multitude of detectors (140), a first electrical laser contact (105) and at least one second electrical laser contact (127), wherein the VCSEL array comprises a multitude of laser diodes (122), wherein each laser diode (122) comprises an optical resonator, wherein the optical resonator comprises a first distributed Bragg reflector (115), a second distributed Bragg reflector (135) and an active layer (120) for light emission, wherein the active layer (120) is arranged between the first distributed Bragg reflector (115) and the second distributed Bragg reflector (135), wherein the first electrical laser contact (105) and the at least one second electrical laser contact (127) are arranged to provide an electrical drive current to electrically pump the optical resonators of the laser diodes (122), wherein the first electrical laser contact (105) is a common contact for all laser diodes (122) of the VCSEL array, and wherein the at least one second electrical laser contact (127) is arranged to electrically contact at least a subgroup of the multitude of laser diodes (122) of the VCSEL array, wherein each detector (140) is arranged to generate an electrical self-mixing interference measurement signal associated to at least one laser diode (122) upon reception of the laser light (10).The invention further relates a self-mixing interference sensor (300) for recording three-dimensional (3D) pictures the VCSEL device and a method of fabricating such a VCSEL device.