Nonselective etching of GaAs/AlGaAs double heterostructure laser facets by Cl2 reactive ion etching in a load-locked system

Journal Article · Mon Sep 07 04:00:00 EDT 1987 · Appl. Phys. Lett.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.98899· OSTI ID:6162974

Vawter, G A; Coldren, L A; Merz, J L; Hu, E L

Reactive ion etching was used for etching laser facets of GaAs/AlGaAs transverse junction stripe lasers. A new load-locked reactive ion etching system was developed to dramatically reduce the background partial pressure of O2 and H2O in the chamber, substantially reducing the oxidation of AlGaAs and permitting equal rate etching of GaAs and AlGaAs with smooth vertical facets. Etching is performed with a chlorine plasma at a low pressure (0.5 mTorr), and bias voltage (-350 V) at a rate of --850 A/min. This simple, single-step dry etching process is suitable for optoelectronic integration and eliminates the requirement of unreliable wet chemical etching or microcleaving techniques. This new system is used to fabricate transverse junction stripe lasers with facet reflectivities of more than 16%. These high quality dry etched facets result in only a 7.5% increase of the threshold current above that of lasers with cleaved facets.

• Research Organization: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
• OSTI ID: 6162974
• Journal Information: Appl. Phys. Lett.; (United States), Journal Name: Appl. Phys. Lett.; (United States) Vol. 51:10; ISSN APPLA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420300* -- Engineering-- Lasers-- (-1989)
ALUMINIUM ARSENIDES
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CURRENTS
DATA
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELEMENTS
ETCHING
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FABRICATION
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
HETEROJUNCTIONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
JUNCTIONS
LASERS
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
OPERATION
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
OXIDATION
OXYGEN
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PNICTIDES
REFLECTIVITY
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS
SURFACE FINISHING
SURFACE PROPERTIES
THRESHOLD CURRENT
WATER