Abstract

Semiconductor lasers emitting in the 0.98-μm wavelength regime are promising for pumping optical-fiber amplifiers and solid-state lasers. The heterostructure of typical high-power 0.98-µm lasers consists of AlGaAs optical cladding layers, whose high oxidation rate often causes reliability problems and difficulty in regrowth. This makes it difficult to fabricate reliable and cost- effective buried-heterostructure lasers, distributed-feedback lasers, and lasers integrated with other electronic or photonic components. In this paper we compare ridge-waveguide and buried-heterostructure (BH) lasers fabricated from the same wafers and using strained InGaAs quantum wells and stepped InGaAsP as the confinement layers and InGaP as optical claddings. The BH lasers typically exhibit one-third the threshold current and higher efficiencies than ridge-waveguide lasers.

© 1993 Optical Society of America