Low-threshold high-To constricted double heterojunction AlGaAs diode lasers

Constricted double heterojunction (c.d.h.) diode lasers of relatively low c.w. thresholds (28?40 mA) are obtained by growing structures that maximise the amount of current flow into the lasing spot. These values are obtained while still using standard 10 ?m wide oxide-defined stripe contacts. Over the 20?70°C temperature interval, we find threshold current temperature coefficients as high as 320°C and a virtually constant external differential quantum efficiency.     

Buried heterostructure AlGaAs lasers on semi-insulating substrates

Buried heterostructure (BH) AlGaAs lasers were fabricated on Cr-doped semi-insulating substrates. Low threshold current (8 mA/?m stripe width for cavity length of 300 ?m), a high differential quantum efficiency (55%), and stable transverse mode operation were realised.     

Strained 1.3 μm MQW AlGaInAs lasers grown by digital alloy MBE

AlGaInAs strained MQW lasers, emitting at 1.3 μm, have been prepared for the first time using a digital alloy approach. 2 μm stripe geometry lasers have characteristics comparable to those of lasers prepared using bulk alloy layers. The infinite length threshold current densities are as low as 140 kA/cm²/quantum well and T ₀ values (20-40°C) range from 75-90 K for chip lengths of 375-2375 μm     

High-temperature operation of InGaAs strained quantum-well lasers

Strained-layer quantum-well (SQW) laser structures have been investigated for avionics applications requiring high-temperature performance. The authors have successfully demonstrated InGaAs-GaAs SQW lasers capable of CW operation up to 200 degrees C with more than 5 mW single-mode optical power. These lasers have an emission wavelength of approximately=980 nm, threshold current density of 200 A/cm/sup 2/, differential quantum efficiency of 60%, high output power of approximately=1 W with 50 mu m stripe, and characteristic temperature of 130-140 K.<>     

High-quantum-efficiency low-threshold microcleaved AlxGa1?xAs lasers

Buried-heterostructure lasers with microcleaved mirrors have been fabricated with lengths varying from 40 to 100 ?m. These lasers have thresholds as low as 7 mA and differential quantum efficiencies as high as 60%. They also show essentially single-longitudinal-mode operation for currents 25% above threshold.     

High power GaInP/AlGaInP visible lasers (/spl lambda/=646 nm) with narrow circular shaped far-field pattern

GaInP/AlGaInP visible lasers based on a longitudinal photonic bandgap crystal waveguide emitting at 646 nm show narrow circular shaped far field pattern. Vertical and lateral beam divergence of about 8/spl deg/ (full width at half maximum) that is independent of injection current is demonstrated. Differential quantum efficiency is up to 85%. Pulsed total optical output power is as high as 20 W for 100 /spl mu/m-wide stripe lasers and 6 W for 20 /spl mu/m-wide stripe lasers. Such values of output optical power are 2.5 higher with respect to ones obtained for the lasers fabricated from the state-of-the-art epiwafers for commercial 650 nm range DVD lasers.     

In(Ga)As/GaAs self-organized quantum dot lasers: DC andsmall-signal modulation properties

Self-organized growth of InGaAs/GaAs strained epitaxial layers gives rise to an ordered array of islands via the Stranski-Krastanow growth mode, for misfits >1.8%. These islands are pyramidal in shape with a base diagonal of ~20 nm and height of ~6-7 nm, depending of growth parameters. They therefore exhibit electronic properties of zero-dimensional systems, or quantum dots. One or more layers of such quantum dots can be stacked and vertically coupled to form the gain region of lasers. We have investigated the properties of such single-layer quantum dot (SLQD) and multilayer quantum dot (MLQD) lasers with a variety of measurements, including some at cryogenic temperatures. The experiments have been complemented with theoretical calculations of the electronic properties and carrier scattering phenomena in the dots. Our objective has been to elucidate the intrinsic behavior of these devices. The lasers exhibit temperature independent threshold currents up to 85 K, with T₀⩽670 K. Typical threshold currents of 200-μm long room temperature lasers vary from 6 to 20 mA. The small-signal modulation bandwidths of ridge waveguide lasers are 5-7.5 GHz at 300 K and increased to >20 GHz at 80 K. These bandwidths agree well with electron capture times of ~30 ps determined from high-frequency laser impedance measurements at 300 K and relaxation times of ~8 ps measured at 18 K by differential transmission pump-probe experiments. From the calculated results we believe that electron-hole scattering intrinsically limits the high-speed performance of these devices, in spite of differential gains as high as ~7×10^-14 cm² at room temperature     

Far-field radiation patterns of multiple quantum well lasers grown by MO-CVD

The far-field radiation patterns of multiple quantum well lasers grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MO-CVD) with conducting stripe widths of 3, 5, 7 and 9 ?m were studied. The results show that the existing antiguidance effect in conventional heterostructure GaAs/GaAlAs lasers is stronger in quantum well lasers due mainly to the thinner active regions.     

InAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers of 1.3 μm range with high(88%) differential efficiency

Multiple layers (up to 10) of InAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots considerably enhance the optical gain of quantum dot lasers emitting around 1.3 μm. A differential efficiency as high as 88% has been achieved in these lasers. An emission wavelength of 1.28 μm, threshold current density of 147 A/cm², differential efficiency of 80%, and characteristic temperature of 150 K have been realised simultaneously in one device     

Room temperature CW operation of GaInAsP/InP double heterostructure diode lasers emitting at 1.5 ?m grown by low pressure metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (LP-MO CVD)

Room temperature continuous wave (CW) operation at 1.5 ?m has been achieved in GaInAsP/InP DH lasers fabricated on material grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (LP-MO CVD). Threshold currents as low as 200 mA DC have been measured for devices with a stripe width of 9 ?m and a cavity length of 300 ?m. Values of To as high as 64 K have been obtained, where To is defined by the expression Jth(T) = Jth(0) exp (T/To). Fundamental transverse mode oscillation has been achieved up to an output power of 10 mW.     

High-performance 980 nm quantum dot lasers for high-powerapplications

High-performance quantum dot lasers emitting at 980 nm with output powers of up to 4 W CW from a single facet (AR/HR coating, 100 μm stripe width) have been fabricated. Wall-plug efficiencies >50%, were achieved at room temperature. Owing to an improved carrier confinement output powers as high as 1 W CW can be obtained from the fundamental dot transition even at temperatures as high as 110°C     

Self-defined AlAs oxide-current-aperture buried-heterostructureridge waveguide InGaAs single-quantum-well diode laser

Techniques for fabricating a self-defined AlAs oxide-current-aperture that is applicable to very small stripe width edge emitting devices and small aperture vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers are reported. InGaAs single-quantum-well buried-heterostructure edge-emitting lasers with a self-defined AlAs oxide-current-aperture were fabricated by a three-step metal-organic chemical vapor deposition growth to demonstrate the validity of the process. The AlAs layer for the AlAs oxide was grown by selective area growth techniques. The threshold current and differential quantum efficiency of 3-μm stripe width, 446-μm-long laser were 2 mA and 91%, respectively. The leakage current at -15 V was less than 20 nA     

High-power singlemode CW operation of 1.5 /spl mu/m-range quantum dot GaAs-based laser

Narrow ridge stripe lasers with metamorphic InAs/InGaAs quantum dots grown using molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates emit in the 1.5 /spl mu/m wavelength range demonstrating a differential quantum efficiency of about 50%, singlemode operation, and maximum continuous-wave power of 220 mW limited by thermal roll-over. Absence of beam filamentation is demonstrated up to the highest power levels studied.     

InAsSb/InAsSbP double-heterostructure lasers emitting at 3–4 µm: Part I

Previous publications concerned with the development and investigation of InAsSb/InAsSbP double heterostructure lasers emitting at 3–4 μm fabricated by liquid phase epitaxy are reviewed. In pulsed mode, the maximum operating temperature of the lasers is 203 K, the characteristic temperature is 35 K, and differential quantum efficiency is 20±5% at 77K. Mesa-stripe lasers with a 10-to 30-μm stripe width and a 200-to 500-μm cavity length can operate in CW mode up to 110 K. The total optical output power of more than 10 mW at λ=3.6 μm is obtained at T=82 K in CW mode. The output power per mode does not exceed 2 mW/facet. A single-mode lasing is achieved in the temperature range of 12–90 K. __________ Translated from Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, Vol. 34, No. 11, 2000, pp. 1396–1403. Original Russian Text Copyright ? 2000 by Danilova, Imenkov, Sherstnev, Yakovlev.     

Characteristics of diffused-stripe InP/InGaAsP/InP lasers emitting around 1.55 µm

Fabrication and lasing characteristics of InGaAsP/InP lasers emitting around 1.55 μm are described. Zn-diffused stripe-geometry lasers with emission wavelengths in the1.53-1.60mum range were fabricated from InP/InGaAsP/InP DH epitaxial wafers prepared by a low temperature LPE technique. The dependence of the lasing charaeteristics on the stripe width was examined. The lowest threshold current (≃160 mA under CW operation at 27°C) was obtained for a laser with a 13 μm stripe. CW operation of the laser has been achieved at a heat-sink temperature as high as 53°C. For sufficiently narrow stripe widths (simeq6 mum), fundamental-transverse mode and single-longitudinal mode operation was obtained under CW operation. Moreover, the lasers have good high-frequency performance. The lasers showed excellent dynamic properties without waveform distortion under high-frequency (800 Mbits/s) large-signal pulse modulation. The full width at half maximum of the longitudinal mode envelope was approximately 30 Å at 800 Mbits/s.     

GaAs:GaAlAs ridge waveguide lasers and their monolithic integrationusing the ion beam etching process

The fabrication and performance characteristics of GaAs/GaAlAs ridge waveguide lasers are discussed. Threshold currents as low as 8 mA and differential quantum efficiencies as high as 90% were obtained for 250-μm-long graded-index separate-confinement heterostructure with single quantum well (GRINSCH SQW) lasers. High-speed short-cavity ridge waveguide lasers for which both the ridge stripe and one-mirror facet were formed by Ar-ion beam etching were achieved. The dependence of threshold current and lasing spectra on the cavity length were theoretically and experimentally investigated. This process was successfully used to integrate a laser diode monolithically with a photodiode or a field-effect transistor     

High-quality 1.3 ?m GaInAsP/InP BH-DFB lasers with first-order gratings

High-quality 1.3 ?m GaInAsP/InP BH-DFB lasers have been demonstrated. The threshold current was 16 mA and the differential quantum efficiency was 25% per facet. A stable single-longitudinal-mode oscillation was obtained, both up to four times the threshold current and up to 85°C. These results are comparable or superior to reported results of Fabry-Perot BH lasers.     

GaAs-based 1.3 µm InGaAs quantum dot lasers: A status report

We review the present status of InGaAs quantum dot lasers on GaAs sub-strates emitting near and at 1.3 μm. Such lasers are shown to be extremely promising for cost-efficient commercial applications in optical fiber communication. Threshold current densities a low as ∼20 Acm⁻² per QD sheet are achieved. Room temperature continuous wave operation at 2.7 W for broad stripe devices is demonstrated. The maximum differential efficiency amounts to 57%. Moreover, single lateral mode continuous wave operation with a maximum output power of 110 mW is realized. Prospects for 1.3 μm GaAs-based vertical cavity surface emitting lasers are given. We also show that the longest wavelength of QD GaAs-based light emitting devices can be potentially extended to 1.7 μm.     

Optimum design conditions for AlGaAs window stripe lasers

The maximum available CW optical power from the AlGaAs window stripe laser was investigated both theoretically and experimentally. It is found that a thin third AlGaAs layer thickness and high-quality pulsed lasing characteristics, such as low threshold current density and high external differential quantum efficiency, which are obtained from refractive index guiding and short window-region length, are necessary to increase CW optical power. Stable fundamental lateral transverse mode CW operation was achieved at 55 mW (∼4.7 MW/cm²) in a window stripe (WS) laser with 3 μm stripewidth, which is about five times higher than the typical catastrophic optical damage (COD) threshold in conventional structure lasers. It was also found that a high-quality window stripe laser with 3 μm stripewidth operated at 30 mW (∼2.6 MW/cm²) for more than 3500 h.     

Tensile-strained GaAsP-AlGaAs laser diodes for reliable 1.2-Wcontinuous-wave operation at 735 nm

Tensile-strained GaAsP quantum wells embedded in AlGaAs large optical cavity structure were investigated at an emission wavelength of 735 nm. 1.2-W continuous-wave operation for 100-μm stripe width diode lasers over 1000 h is reported. Experiments with different stripe widths showed a high stability at an output power of 12-mW/μm stripe widths with degradation rates below 5·10^-5 h^-1, i.e., lifetimes larger than 5000 h could be expected