Heterostructure laser having a stripe region defined in an active layer by a difference in impurity

Patent · Tue Aug 08 04:00:00 EDT 1978

OSTI ID:6483923

Hayashi, I; Lang, R

In an active layer restricted by a pair of heterojunctions in a semiconductor laser, a stripe region and a contiguous region are made to have a difference in kinds and/or concentrations of impurity to give the stripe region a higher dielectric constant, preferably by about 0.01 to 1%, than the contiguous region whereby transverse laser oscillation confined to the active layer by the heterojunctions is further confined to the stripe region in a width direction parallel to the heterojunctions. The dielectric constant profile established in the active layer stabilizes the transverse mode and eliminates nonlinearities in the laser output-exciting current curve as well as other undesirable performance characteristics that are exhibited in conventional stripe-geometry lasers. The difference in the impurity gives the stripe region a narrower band gap of from about 5 to about 100 MeV than the contiguous region. For a laser of III-V-Group semi-conductor materials, the difference is achieved by doping these regions with an n-type and/or a p-type impurity. The stripe width may be between about 1 micron and several tens of microns. The laser stably produces a single-mode optical output of 10 and 30 mW or more in CW and pulsed operation, respectively.

• Assignee: Nippon Electric Co., Ltd.
• Patent Number(s): US 4105955
• OSTI ID: 6483923
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420300* -- Engineering-- Lasers-- (-1989)
DESIGN
IMPURITIES
LASERS
PERFORMANCE
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS