Title :
Degradation Analysis of Facet Coating in GaAs-Based High-Power Laser Diodes
Author :
Xueqin Gong ; Shiwei Feng ; Hongwei Yang ; Zhenfeng An ; Yanbin Qiao
Author_Institution :
Coll. of Electron. Inf. & Control Eng., Beijing Univ. of Technol., Beijing, China
Abstract :
The facet coating of GaAs-based laser diodes (LDs) stressed by constant current was studied in detail using focused ion beam, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy techniques. Our analysis found that, for Si/Al2O3 facet coating, silicon near the active area exposed to high laser intensity becomes diffused, making it thicker than the Si layer outside the active area. Oxygen diffused into the Si layer and the Si layer got oxidized. Such change of facet-coating thickness and composition causes the facet reflectivity to fluctuate and carriers to recombine nonradioactively and eventually lead to catastrophic optical damage. We conclude that the performance of LDs could be improved by optimizing their facet coating.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; X-ray chemical analysis; aluminium compounds; coating techniques; focused ion beam technology; gallium arsenide; oxidation; semiconductor lasers; silicon; transmission electron microscopy; GaAs; GaAs-based high-power laser diodes; Si layer oxidation; Si-Al2O3; catastrophic optical damage; constant current; degradation analysis; energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy; facet coating; focused ion beam; high laser intensity; high-resolution transmission electron microscopy; Aluminum oxide; Coatings; Diode lasers; Laser theory; Radiative recombination; Semiconductor lasers; Silicon; Laser diodes; Laser diodes,; facet coating; reliability; silicon;
Journal_Title :
Device and Materials Reliability, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TDMR.2015.2446993
