Abstract

We present a technique developed to etch grooves more than 70 µm deep and less than 20 µm wide into n-type indium phosphide wafers for the purpose of inducing precise wafer-scale cleaving of specific-cavity-length lasers. The technique is applicable to many types of semiconductor laser, including AlGaAs and InGaAsP, buried heterostructure and ridge waveguide, and DFB, DBR, and cleaved-coupled-cavity (C³) lasers. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching creates high-aspect-ratio grooves, is not destructive, is reproducible, and is compatible with standard fabrication techniques.

© 1985 Optical Society of America