HIGH-POWER OPERATION OF SELF-ALIGNED STEPPED SUBSTRATE (S3) ALGAINP VISIBLE LASER-DIODE

A selfaligned stepped substrate (S3) AlGaInP visible laser diode structure is very attractive, because the laser structure, which includes a current blocking structure and an index guiding waveguide, is fabricated by only one-step MOVPE growth. The authors have improved the S3 laser structure for high power operation, and modified the facet reflectivity and optical confinement factor to increase the power level at which catastrophic optical damage occurs. High-power operation at more than 70 mW has been achieved. The laser exhibits fundamental lateral mode oscillation up to 40 mW with an astigmatism of less than 1 mum, and has stably operated at 50-degrees-C for more than 1000 h under the condition with an outut power of 20 mW.