A new monolithic dual GaAlAs laser array for read/write optical disk applications

A monolithic dual GaAlAs laser array has been developed for applications to optical recording systems. Two lasers are integrated on a single chip: a high-power laser with an output power of more than 50 mW for recording, and a low-noise laser with a relative intensity noise value of less than - 140 dB/Hz for readout. A chemical etching technique and a multilayer coating technique have been applied to obtain both the high-power laser and the low-noise laser simultaneously on a single GaAs chip.