Nitride facet passivation raises reliability, COMD, and enables high-temperature operation of InGaAsP, InGaAs, and InAlGaAs lasers

Christofer Silfvenius; Yanting Sun; Peter Blixt; Carsten Lindstroem; Alfred O. Feitisch

doi:10.1117/12.590358

17 March 2005 Nitride facet passivation raises reliability, COMD, and enables high-temperature operation of InGaAsP, InGaAs, and InAlGaAs lasers

Christofer Silfvenius, Yanting Sun, Peter Blixt, Carsten Lindstroem, Alfred O. Feitisch

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5711, High-Power Diode Laser Technology and Applications III; (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.590358
Event: Lasers and Applications in Science and Engineering, 2005, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

The laser diode technology, underpinning applications such as data storage, industrial lasers and optical telecommunications, still suffers from reliability and longevity limitations, especially in high power applications. A main problem for these lasers arises from facet oxidation, leading to increased absorption, power degradation and COMD device failure. Typically, high power devices initially show a low linear degradation and after some 100 hours, the degradation accelerates in a nonlinear fashion, indicating a degradation runaway condition. This article reports performance and reliability improvements that are based on a process which atomically seals surfaces and eliminates oxidation by forming stable nitrides on laser facets. The dangling bond terminating technology suppresses accelerated degradation associated with optical density and heat at laser facets. The dangling bond termination is demonstrated by improved COMD, decreased degradation at CW operation and a constant linear degradation rate at different QW temperature conditions (nonlinear degradation indicates advancement in the oxidation/optical absorption/facet heating/oxidation spiral). The technology is applicable to a range of material systems and has previously been demonstrated on InAlGaAs and InGaAs (increased COMD to >270 and 470mW/μm respectively). The devices with the typically lowest COMD levels (AlInGaAs) show a remarkably low linear degradation rate of <0.5%/kh during at CW life test operation at 90°C and a power level corresponding to 80W bar power. In addition to long term AlInGaAs laser life test results, this paper presents results on nitride facet passivation applied to 805nm InGaAsP devices, showing improved COMD to 400mW/μm and the initial CW life data confirms the general behavior of the previously life-tested InGaAs and InAlGaAs based devices.

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Christofer Silfvenius, Yanting Sun, Peter Blixt, Carsten Lindstroem, and Alfred O. Feitisch "Nitride facet passivation raises reliability, COMD, and enables high-temperature operation of InGaAsP, InGaAs, and InAlGaAs lasers", Proc. SPIE 5711, High-Power Diode Laser Technology and Applications III, (17 March 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.590358

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