This paper reviews the progress on nano-aperture vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The design, fabrication, and polarization control of nano-aperture VCSELs are reviewed. With the nano-aperture evolving from conventional circular and square aperture to unique C-shaped, H-shaped, I-shaped, and bowtie-shaped aperture, both the near-field intensity and near-field beam confinement from nano-aperture VCSELs are significantly improved. As a high-intensity compact light source with sub-

We have seen a lot of unique features off vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), such as low power consumption, wafer-level testing, small packaging capability, and so on. The market of VCSELs has been growing up rapidly in recent years and they are now the key devices in local area networks using multi-mode optical fibers. In addition, new functions on VCSELs have been demonstrated. In this paper, the recent advances of VCSEL photonics will be reviewed, which include the wavelength e