V-grooved substrate buried heterostructure InGaAsP/InP laser emitting at 1.3 µm wavelength

Details of the fabrication, optimization of the dimensions of the active region, characteristics, and the aging results of theV- grooved substrate buried heterostructure (VSB) InGaAsP/InP laser are described. It is shown that the VSB laser can be fabricated in one-step epitaxy as well as two-step epitaxy. The active region width below 2.5 μm and the thickness of0.15-0.2 mum are shown to give stable fundamental mode operation and good temperature characteristics. The fundamental mode operation up to the optical output of 20 mW/facet at 25°C and the CW operation above 100°C are obtained. The pulse response showed the strongly damped relaxation oscillation with a frequency as high as 4.5 GHz. The spectral width under the modulation of 400 Mbit/s RZ single is as narrow as 25 Å in full width at half maximum. Highly stable aging characteristics at an elevated temperature of 50°C are obtained in both two-step epitaxy lasers and one-step epitaxy lasers.     

1.5 µm range InGaAsP/InP distributed feedback lasers

Lasing characteristics of InGaAsP/InP distributed feedback (DFB) lasers in the 1.5 μm range were studied theoretically and experimentally. Wave propagation in five-layer DFB waveguides were analyzed to estimate the effect of the structural parameters on threshold conditions. A brief consideration on designing a low threshold laser and its lasing wavelength was made. DFB buried heterostructure lasers with fundamental grating emitting at 1.53 μm were prepared by liquid phase epitaxial techniques. CW operation was confirmed in the temperature rangeof -20° to 58°C, and a CW threshold current was as low as 50 mA at room temperature. A stable single longitudinal mode operation was observed both in dc condition and in modulated condition by a pseudorandom pulse current at 500 Mbits/s. No significant increase in the threshold current was observed after 1400 h continuous CW operation at 20°C.     

Reliability in InGaAsP/InP buried heterostructure 1.3 µm lasers

A study was conducted of aging-induced Sn whisker growth at the surface of Au-Sn bonding solder layers around a laser chip, as well as metallurgical reactions, especially in p-side down lasers, at the interface of the solder and laser crystal just below the active layer. These phenomena cause electrical shorts in InGaAsP/InP laser diodes, which occur suddenly in devices operated for long periods without any previous symptoms having appeared in their aging characteristics. To completely eliminate such failures, a novel assembling method in which chips were mounted p-side up on semiinsulating SiC submounts using Pb-Sn solder, was applied to InGaAsP/InP buried heterostructure (BH) lasers emitting at 1.3 μm. BH lasers assembled by this method do not suffer any shorting failure even after 8000 h operation under 60°C and 5 mW/facet output conditions. The small degradation rates obtained, for example, 3 percent/kh (median) at 60°C, certify the reliability of these improved lasers. As long as the stripe width of the active layer was optimized to be in the range of1.5-2.5 mum necessary for obtaining kink-free light output versus current properties, no detrimental changes in laser characteristics, including transverse and longitudinal modes and dynamic output response, were observed in aged lasers. In this paper, the long-term degradation modes observed are presented, and possible causes are discussed.     

Single-mode operation of 1.3 µm InGaAsP/InP buried crescent lasers using a short external optical cavity

Highly single longitudinal mode operation of 1.3 μm InGaAsP/InP buried crescent lasers has been obtained using a60-600 mum long external cavity defined by a spherical mirror. The intensity of the neighboring modes was suppressed by a factor of 1200 for dc excitation and by a factor of 800 for combined dc and 250 MHz current modulation.     

Chemically etched-mirror GaInAsP/InP lasers--Review

Detailed results on stripe GaxIn1-xAsyP1-y/InP lasers (lambda = 1.3 mum) with chemically etched-mirrors are reviewed. These devices are fabricated from GaInAsP/InP wafers grown by liquid phase epitaxy. A simple stripe laser structure with one etched mirror and one cleaved mirror is proposed. Monolithic passivation has been achieved using a Si3N4film and metal coatings on the etched facets. These processes not only increase the reflectivity of the etched mirrors, resulting in threshold currents even lower than uncoated cleaved devices, but also ease the problem of bonding of the chips on heat sinks. CW operation at room temperature has been achieved. Threshold currents of devices with 10 μm stripe electrodes were about 180-200 mA. Short cavity lasers and integrated monitoring detectors have also been demonstrated.     

InGaAsP/InP separated multiclad layer stripe geometry laser emitting at 1.5 µm wavelength

We have developed an InGaAsP/InP separated multiclad layer (SML) stripe geometry laser emitting at 1.5 μm wavelength. In this laser, the optical confinement is done by the effective refractive index step owing to the formation of the coupled waveguide outside the stripe region. The current confinement is done by the p-n-p-n structure outside the stripe region. The CW threshold current at 25 °C is only 82 mA for the stripe width and the cavity length of 6 μm and 250 μm, respectively. The maximum temperature where the CW lasing is obtained is 65°C. The characteristic temperature of the threshold current is 60 K. The transverse mode is fundamental up to 1.8 times the threshold. Ten samples are operated at 50°C with constant optical output of 5 mW/facet. These samples are still operating at over 10 000 h with a slight increase in the driving current. The appreciable change in the characteristics due to aging is not observed.     

Zn-diffused, stripe-geometry, double-heterostructure GaInAsP/InP diode lasers

Deep Zn diffusion from a ZnP2source has been used to fabricate stripe-geometry double-heterostructure GaInAsP/InP diode lasers with emission wavelengths in the1.2-1.3 mum range. These devices exhibit good electrical and optical confinement. For sufficiently narrow stripe widths (<10 mum), emission is usually single mode and linear. CW outputs up to ∼8 mW per facet have been observed. In initial life tests, two Zn-diffused lasers have operated CW at room temperature for over 5000 h without appreciable degradation.     

Monolithic integration of InGaAsP/InP distributed feedback laser and electroabsorption modulator by vapor phase epitaxy

Monolithic integration of a 1.55-μm InGaAsP/InP distributed feedback (DFB) laser and an electroabsorption (EA) modulator was studied. The difference between the lasing photon energy and the bandgap energy of the modulator waveguide was designed to be 30-40 meV, taking into account the linewidth-enhancement factor and the zero-bias absorption loss. The integrated devices were grown by three-step vapor phase epitaxy (VPE). The CW threshold current at 20°C of the DFB laser part with a buried heterostructure was 30-60 mA and the breakdown voltage of the modulator part with a strip-loaded stripe geometry was 20-40 V, and these values indicated satisfactory crystal quality in the VPE epitaxial layers. The operating voltage of the modulator to give on:off ratios of 10:1 and 100:1 was 1.5- 4 V and 2.5-6.5 V, respectively, depending on the length in the range200-500 mum. A 3-dB bandwidth of about 2.5 GHz and a linewidth-enhancement factor of about 1.6 were obtained for the integrated modulator.     

High-performance single-longitudinal-mode operation of InGaAsP/InP DFB-DC-PBH LD's

The lasing performance of InGaAsP/InP distributed feedback laser diodes with double-channel planar buried heterostructure (DFB-DC-PBH LD's) is reported for end-titled and antireflection (AR) coated configuration. High-power CW single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) operation over 55-mW light output at room temperature, high-temperature CW SLM operation over 105°C, as well as stable SLM operation under 2-Gb/s high-speed direct modulation, have been attained for 1.3-μm band DFB-DC-PBH LD's. 1.5-μm band DFB-DC-PBH LD's have also exhibited excellent DFB lasing characteristics, such as high power over 20 mW and high temperature over 75°C CW SLM operation. DFB SLM yield in the laboratory was also examined for 1.3-μm DFB-DC-PBH LD's, giving rise to a good prospect for practical use in optical-fiber communication systems.     

Effective refractive index and first-order-mode cutoff conditions in InGaAsP/InP DH laser structures (λ = 1.2-1.6 µm)

The virtual wavelength-invariance of the ratio between bandgap wavelength and the square root of the dielectric-constant step in InGaAsP/InP DH structures [i.e., (lambda_{g}/sqrt{Deltaepsilon}) = 0.95 pm 0.03for 1.2 μm< lambda_{g} < 1.6 mum] and an analytical approximation for the transverse propagation constantb, allow the derivation of an accurate, closed-form expression for the effective refractive index Neffof InGaAsP/InP planar DH lasers emitting in the1.2-1.6 mum range. Then, Neffis only a function of two readily measurable parameters: emission wavelength and active-layer thickness. Furthermore, the mode cutoff conditions for various lateral waveguides: buried-rectangular, buried-crescent, and ridge-guide, become wavelength-independent analytical expressions. First-order-mode cutoff conditions for these lateral waveguides are derived, plotted and compared to experimental data from mode-stabilized 1.3 and 1.55 μm DH lasers.     

InGaAsP/InP separated multiclad layer stripe geometry lasers emitting at 1.5 ?m

InGaAsP/InP separated multiclad layer stripe geometry lasers emitting at 1.5 ?m are reported. The CW threshold current at 25°C is only 82 mA and the maximum temperature where CW lasing is obtained is 65°C. The characteristic temperature of the pulsed threshold current is 60 K. The transverse mode is fundamental and the longitudinal mode is single up to 1.5 times the threshold under CW operation. A few samples operated for over 1000 h at 50°C under constant optical power operation of 5 mW/facet.     

Three- and four-layer LPE InGaAs(P) mushroom stripe lasers for λ = 1.30, 1.54, and 1.66 µm

Mushroom stripe (MS) InGaAsP/InP and InGaAs/InP lasers have been realized emitting atlambda = 1.3, 1.54,and 1.66 μm, respectively. The main advantage of these MS lasers is their technological simplicity, because only one epitaxial growth step consisting of three or four layers, respectively, is required. No contact layer and no filling layers are needed. In our phosphorus silicate glass (PSG) passivated MS lasers, current spreading is completely inhibited. The devices have very low CW threshold currents and high values of output power, external differential efficiency, and To. All these properties are equivalent to those of the much more complicated buried heterostructure lasers. CW operation in up-side-up mounted MS lasers on p-type substrates is easily achieved, because their series resistance is very low. The devices oscillate in the fundamental lateral mode for easily achievable width and thickness combinations, and tend to longitudinal monomode behavior at moderate output powers. The modulation capability is more than 1 Gbit/s RZ due to the low capacitance of the mushrooms. The commonly used antimeltback layer for lasers withlambda > 1.5 mum on     

Separated multi clad-layer stripe-geometry GaAlAs DH laser

The fabrication process, the analysis of the waveguiding property, and the lasing characteristics of a separated multiclad-layer (SML) stripe-geometry laser for a 0.8 μm wavelength are described. The SML stripe geometry enables us to grow at 820°C a flat active layer without deformation of the shape of the grow by melt-etching. The analysis shows that the built-in waveguide is the effective refractive index step waveguide, in contrast to the loss step waveguide of the CSP laser, and we can fabricate a laser with small stripewidth. The fundamental transverse and longitudinal single-mode lasing were obtained with CW threshold current of 45-70 mA for the stripewidth3-6 mum. The damped relaxation oscillation and the small spectral broadening when modulated by 400 Mbits/s RZ random pulses were obtained. A small increase rate of the driving current when operated at 50°C with 5 mW/facet output was confirmed.     

GaInAsP/InP surface emitting injection laser with a ring electrode

-A GaInAsP/InP surface emitting injection laser (lambda = 1.2 mum) with a ring electrode has been fabricated. In this structure we separated the reflecting mirror from the p-side electrode in order to increase the reflectivity. Threshold current was 90 mA at 77 K and the operating temperature has been raised up to -85°C. The cavity length was 7.5 μm and single longitudinal mode operation was achieved.     

Transverse mode controlled in inGaAsP inP lasers at 1.5 µm range with buffer-layer loaded piano-convex waveguide (BL-PCW) structures

A modified plano-convex waveguide structure is studied analytically and successfully applied to InGaAsP/InP lasers in the1.5- 1.6 mum wavelength region to realize stable transverse mode operation. The structure of these lasers is characterized by a standard buffer layer between an active layer and an upper cladding layer and a waveguide layer of varying thickness between the active layer and the substrate. A theoretical analysis of this structure showed that, for a given channel depth, increases in buffer-layer thickness give rise to larger maximum channel widths of the substrate for fundamental transverse mode operation. It was also shown that the optical confinement factor in the active layer decreases little as the buffer-layer thickness is increased from 0.1 to 0.3 μm. Buffer-layer loaded plano-convex waveguide lasers in the 1.5 μm range were prepared by liquid phase epitaxy and fundamental transverse mode operation up untilI = 2I_{th}was obtained. The dc threshold current was 100-300 mA and the differential quantum efficiency per facet was 10-15 percent. Continuous CW operation for over 2000 h at 25°C has been achieved.     

The heteroepitaxial ridge-overgrown distributed feedback laser

A new distributed feedback laser, the heteroepitaxial ridge-overgrown distributed feedback (HRO-DFB) laser, is proposed and demonstrated. The growth steps permit post-active-layer growth determination of the grating period, and the fabrication of this laser is simple with an automatic alignment of the current confinement to the ridge-overgrowths, which form the strip-loaded waveguide of the laser. The lateral overgrowth extending over the oxide films on both sides of the window stripe enhances the effect of grating feedback. Both LPE and MO-CVD have been employed successfully for the ridge overgrowth. The HRO-DFB laser was shown to operate in stable single-longitudinal mode with no observable mode partition events under 2 Gbit/s pseudorandom pulse modulation. The dynamic spectral width under 2 Gbit/s modulation was typically 0.5-2 Å. Other characteristics of these 1.5 μm HRO-DFB lasers include ∼8 mW/facet of single-longitudinal mode output power, and narrow beam divergence of 10° operating in the fundamental transverse mode in the junction plane. The CW thresholds were usually 50-100 mA. Transmission experiments with dispersive fibers (17 ps/km-nm) atsim1.55 mum at 2 Gbits/s over 82 km and at 420 Mbits/s over 203 km confirmed that the HRO-DFB laser is an excellent a single-frequency optical source for use in optical communication applications.     

Thermal resistance and temperature distribution in double-heterostructure lasers: Calculations and experimental results

The thermal resistance and temperature distribution in double-heterostructure lasers have been calculated taking into account the characteristics of the different layers, the internal quantum efficiency, and allotment of the dissipated power, in order to optimize their structure. The influence of the different layers in the heterostructure and of the electrical contact is analyzed. Thermal resistance of CW, shallow proton-implanted lasers has been determined experimentally using the technique that relies upon a null measurement of the wavelength of a single Fabry-Perot mode. Statistical results on some hundreds of lasers with different stripe widths (6-125 mum), mounted on different heat sinks (copper, silicon, beryllium oxide) are given and compared to theoretical values. The model we propose gives good agreement with experimental results. The 6 μm width stripe laser is of special interest because this laser is transverse monomode up to an optical power of 6 mW. A value of 22° C/W has been achieved in a reproducible manner for6 times 300 mum lasers mounted on copper heat sinks. The effectiveness of the bonding technique is demonstrated. Si and BeO heat sinks are suitable for many applications because of their chemical (V grove etching in Si) and thermal properties (better linear expansion coefficient match to GaAs). We show that the increase of thermal resistance so introduced is still compatible with long CW operation.     

InGaAsP/InP distributed feedback buried heterostructure lasers with both facets cleaved structure

Feasibilities of InGaAsP/InP distributed feedback buried heterostructure lasers in the 1.3 and 1.5 μm wavelength regions with two cleaved facets are shown. Theoretical and experimental examinations show that the kL values ranging between 1 and 2 are sufficient for high-performance operation with the stable single longitudinal mode in a temperature range wider than 100 degrees. Distribution of lasing characteristics is investigated for 140 randomly chosen LD's from two wafers. Approximately 65 percent of the devices are found to be operable in the single longitudinal mode. A CW single longitudinal mode operation power of 20 mW at 25°C for a 1.5 μm device, and that of 40 mW (60 mW with AR coating) at 25°C for a 1.3 μm device with low threshold current are achieved. These characteristics are attained by both first- and second-order grating devices fabricated by the PH3addition LPE technique. The results of the aging test at 70°C and 110 mA in the automatic current control condition are also presented.     

Static characteristics of 1.5 - 1.6 µm GaInAsP/InP buried heterostructure butt-jointed built-in integrated lasers

Lasing characteristics of GaInAsP/InP buried heterostructure butt-jointed built-in distributed Bragg reflector integrated lasers (BH-BJB-DBR lasers) intended for dynamic single mode operation in the wavelength range of1.5-1.6 mum are given. In the first section, the coupling property between the active region and the butt-jointed external waveguide region is calculated to show the possibility of large fabrication tolerance. A coupling coefficient of more than 95 percent is estimated. Secondly, the GaInAsP/InP integrated lasers were fabricated and tested in the view of the static characteristics and the axial mode selection property. Lateral mode control was achieved by the use of a buried heterostructure, so that the axial and lateral modes were maintained to a fixed single mode. The lasers thus fabricated were operated in CW conditions at room temperature with a threshold current of about 100 mA. Single longitudinal mode operation was observed with a temperature dependence of about 0.13 nm/deg with the temperature range of more than50-65degC at around 0°C. Differential quantum efficiency as high as 13 percent/ facet was obtained for the laser with power output of more than 5 mW/facet. The output spectrum below threshold indicated the strong wavelength selectivity of the DBR region, and the net gain difference between the main DBR mode and the adjacent submode was measured to be about 6 cm^-1. No appreciable degradation and change of characteristics have been observed even after CW operation of more than 9770 h at 20°C.     

Performance of Hybrid Laser Diodes Consisting of Silicon Slab and InP/InGaAsP Deep‐Ridge Waveguides

The fundamental transverse mode lasing of a hybrid laser diode is a prerequisite for efficient coupling to a single‐mode silicon waveguide, which is necessary for a wavelength‐division multiplexing silicon interconnection. We investigate the lasing mode profile for a hybrid laser diode consisting of silicon slab and InP/InGaAsP deep ridge waveguides. When the thickness of the top silicon is 220 nm, the fundamental transverse mode is lasing in spite of the wide waveguide width of 3.7µm. The threshold current is 40 mA, and the maximum output power is 5 mW under CW current operation. In the case of a thick top silicon layer (1 µm), the higher modes are lasing. There is no significant difference in the thermal resistance of the two devices.