Arrangement for damping the resonance in a laser diode

An arrangement for damping the resonance in a laser diode is described. This arrangement includes an additional layer which together with the conventional laser diode form a structure (35) of a bipolar transistor. Therein, the additional layer serves as the collector, the cladding layer next to it as the base, and the active region and the other cladding layer as the emitter. A capacitor is connected across the base and the collector. It is chosen so that at any frequency above a certain selected frequency which is far below the resonance frequency the capacitor impedance is very low, effectively shorting the base to the collector

AlGaAs inverted strip buried heterostructure lasers

Inverted strip buried heterostructure lasers have been fabricated. These lasers have threshold currents and quantum efficiencies that are comparable to those of conventional buried heterostructure lasers. The optical mode is confined by a weakly guiding strip loaded waveguide which makes possible operation in the fundamental transverse mode for larger stripe widths than is possible for conventional buried heterostructure lasers. Scattering of the laser light by irregularities in the sidewalls of the waveguide, which can be a serious problem in conventional buried heterostructure lasers, is also greatly reduced in these lasers

Large optical cavity AlGaAs buried heterostructure window lasers

Large optical cavity buried heterostructure window lasers in which only the transparent AlGaAs waveguiding layers, and not the active layer, extend to the laser mirrors have been fabricated. These lasers have threshold currents and differential quantum efficiencies comparable to those of regular large optical cavity buried heterostructure lasers in which the active region extends to the laser mirrors, however the window lasers have been operated under pulsed conditions at three times the power at which otherwise identical lasers without windows degrade by catastrophic mirror damage

Recent Developments In Monolithic Phase-Locked Semiconductor Laser Arrays

Coherent combination of the power of several semiconductor lasers fabricated on the same substrate has been the subject of an intense research effort in recent years, the main motivation being to obtain higher power levels than those available from a single laser in a stable radiation pattern. Best results reported so far include 2.6 Watts cw emitted power and less than 10 far-field angle (in the array plane) in arrays where all the lasers are electrically connected in parallel. A different type of coherent array, where each element has a separate contact, has been recently demonstrated. While requiring the more complex two-level metallization technology, applying a separate contact to each laser provides an additional degree of freedom in the design and the operation of monolithic arrays. The separate contacts can be employed to tailor the near-field and far-field distributions and to compensate for device-to-device nonuniformities. Furthermore, the control of the currents of the array elements allows the performance of a variety of other functions, such as beam scanning, spectral mode control, wavelength tuning and control of the mutual coherence between array elements

Controlled fundamental supermode operation of phase-locked arrays of gain-guided diode lasers

Uniform semiconductor laser arrays tend to oscillate in a superposition of their supermodes, thus leading to large beam divergence and spectral spread. Discrimination among the supermodes in phase-locked arrays is discussed theoretically. It is shown that supermode discrimination in gain-guided arrays, in favor of the fundamental supermode, is made possible by the near-field interference patterns which result from the complex optical fields of the gain-guided lasers. A fundamental supermode operation is demonstrated, for the first time, in GaAlAs/GaAs gain-guided laser arrays. This is achieved by control of the current (gain) profile across the array by means of individual laser contacts

Narrow stripe AlGaAs lasers using double current confinement

Gain guided AlGaAs lasers in which the current is restricted to flow between two narrow stripes have been fabricated. The double current confinement configuration, which is fabricated by a selective meltback‐growth technique, enables the current injection to be restricted to a very narrow section of the active layer. These lasers exhibit very strong antiguiding and operate in many longitudinal modes, which are characteristics of narrow stripe lasers. Potential applications of the twin vertical stripe configuration include arrays of optically coupled lasers and, if a real index waveguiding mechanism can be combined with double current confinement, low threshold lasers

Diffraction coupled phase-locked semiconductor laser array

A new monolithic, diffraction coupled phase-locked semiconductor laser array has been fabricated. Stable narrow far-field patterns (~3°) and peak power levels of 1 W have been obtained for 100-µm-wide devices with threshold currents as low as 250 mA. Such devices may be useful in applications where high power levels and stable radiation patterns are needed

Double-heterostructure GaAs-GaAIAs injection lasers on semi-insulating substrates using carrier crowding

GaAs‐GaAlAs double‐heterostructure lasers were fabricated on semi‐insulating substrates. Laser action based on carrier confinement via the crowding effect has been demonstrated. Laser action takes place in a narrow (10–20 μm) region near the edge of the mesa where the current is injected. The threshold current is low and is comparable to that of stripe‐geometry lasers

Effect of spin-orbit interaction on heterojunction band discontinuities

The effect of spin-orbit interaction is included in the linear combination of atomic orbitals calculation of heterojunction band discontinuities. It is found that spin-orbit interaction is not negligible when the atomic number of the constituent atoms exceeds about 40. The effect of spin-orbit interaction as well as some interesting observations and their implications are briefly discussed

Internal photoemission from quantum well heterojunction superlattices by phononless free-carrier absorption

The possibility of phononless free-carrier absorption in quantum well heterojunction superlattices was investigated. Order of magnitude calculation showed that the absorption coefficient was significantly enhanced over the phonon-assisted process. Important aspects of the enhancement in the design of infrared photodetectors are discussed