New gratingless wavelength-stabilized laser

Summary form only given. Wavelength stabilization is usually obtained in semiconductor lasers with a diffraction grating close to the gain region. Generally this requires complex lithography and at least one regrowth step. Furthermore, the light from a standard semiconductor laser is highly elliptical and cannot efficiently be coupled to an optical fiber. Frequently, the total power output is limited by catastrophic mirror damage that occurs when the optical field becomes excessive at the semiconductor-air interface. We describe a novel structure that may overcome these problems of standard semiconductor lasers. The GaAs-AlAs QW laser is composed of two coupled waveguides, a thick low index waveguide and a lower semiconductor waveguide made with quarter-wave mirrors.