Coupled-guide waveguiding in buried-stripe self-aligned lasers

Lateral waveguiding in the buried-stripe self-aligned laser is described. A channel etched in a current-confining layer provides a single vertical guide in the channel region and a coupled vertical guide outside the channel region. The lateral horizontal waveguide can be tailored to be real index guiding or real index antiguiding. This is achieved by choosing either the highest-order mode or the next highest-order mode as the one which couples best to the active layer in the coupled-guide system formed outside the channel.