IFVD-based large intermixing selectivity window process for high power laser diodes

Abstract

Catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD) is a key issue in semiconductor lasers and it is initiated by facet heating because of optical absorption. To reduce optical absorption, the most promising method is to form non-absorbing mirror structures at the facets by obtaining larger bandgap through impurity-free vacancy disordering (IFVD). To apply an IFVD process while fabricating high-power laser diodes, intermixing window and intermixing suppression regions are needed. Increasing the bandgap difference (ΔE) between these regions improves the laser lifetime. In this report, SrF2 (versus SixO2/SrF2 bilayer) and SiO2 dielectric films are used to suppress and enhance the intermixing, respectively. However, defects are formed during the annealing process of single layer SrF2 causing detrimental effects on the semiconductor laser performance. As an alternative method, SixO2/SrF2 bilayer films with a thin SixO2 dielectric layer is employed to obtain high epitaxial quality during annealing with small penalty on the suppression effect. We demonstrate record large ΔE of 125 meV. Broad area laser diodes were fabricated by the IFVD process. Fabricated high-power semiconductor lasers demonstrated conservation of quantum efficiency with high intermixing selectivity. The differential quantum efficiencies are 81%, 74%, 66% and 46% for as grown, bilayer protected, SrF2 protected and QWI lasers, respectively. High power laser diodes using bilayer dielectric films outperformed single-layer based approach in terms of the fundamental operational parameters of lasers. Comparable results obtained for the as-grown and annealed bilayer protected lasers promises a novel method to fabricate high power laser diodes with superior performance and reliability.