4 WAVELENGTH DISTRIBUTED FEEDBACK RIDGE WAVE-GUIDE QUANTUM-WELL HETEROSTRUCTURE LASER ARRAY

A four-wavelength strained-layer InGaAs-GaAs-AlGaAs distributed feedback ridge waveguide quantum-well heterostructure laser array, with a lasing emission wavelength separation of approximately 16 angstrom between adjacent emitters, is described. The four-wavelength array requires only a single MOCVD growth step. Lateral optical confinement is achieved with dry-etched lateral third-order gratings. Each element operates in the fundamental lateral mode with a near-field FWHM of 2.6 +/- 0.1 mum and the entire width of the near-field pattern is < 80 mum.