We investigated the degradation modes in the aging processes of TO-18 packaged (Al, In)GaN laser diodes
grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on low-dislocation-density bulk GaN wafers. The
lifetime-limiting degradation drastically occurred in the initial stage, and we found it was due to the photon-enhanced
carbon deposition on the oxide mirror surface at the laser-emitting facets. The deposited carbon would be originated
mostly from residual organic materials with C-H bonds. The carbon sources could be successfully removed by plasma
cleaning just before cap-welding. The improved lifetime of the plasma cleaned laser diode packed with argon gas
exceeds 2,000 h under 160 mW cw-operation at 60 °C. The lifetime-limiting degradation is attributed to nonradiative
recombination related with the defects extended from GaN substrates. The activation energy of the degradation extracted
from the thermally accelerated aging tests was determined to be 0.81 eV.
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