Studies of VCSEL Failures in the Optical Readout Systems of the ATLAS Silicon Trackers and Liquid Argon Calorimeters

The readout systems for the ATLAS silicon trackers and liquid argon calorimeters utilize vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diodes to communicate between on and off detector readout components. A number of these VCSEL devices have failed well before their expected lifetime. We summarize the failure history and present what has been learned thus far about failure mechanisms and the dependence of the lifetime on environmental conditions.