High-power highly-reliable operation of 0.98-μm InGaAs-InGaP strain-compensated single-quantum-well lasers with tensile-strained InGaAsP barriers

We compared 0.98-μm lasers with a strain-compensated active layer consisting of a compressive InGaAs well and tensile-strained InGaAsP barriers with identical lasers that have a conventional active layer with GaAs barriers. It was shown that the lasers with InGaAsP barriers have better temperature characteristics due to the larger energy gap difference between a well and barriers. Because of the high characteristic temperature, 200-mW operation was obtained with the InGaAsP-barrier laser even at 90°C without any significant deterioration. We also showed that the operation of the lasers with a strain-compensated active layer was highly reliable. The degradation rate of these lasers was four times smaller than that of the lasers with GaAs barriers due to the better crystal quality in their active laser. The estimated lifetime at 25°C for the lasers with a strain-compensated active layer was more than 170000 hours