Reliable operation of strain-compensated 1.06 mu m InGaAs/InGaAsP/GaAs single quantum well lasers

We report the reliable operation of strain-compensated InGaAs/InGaAsP/GaAs 1.06 mu m separate confinement heterostructure single-quantum-well laser diodes with tensile-strained InGaAsP barriers grown on GaAs substrate. High band-gap strain-compensation barriers are used to suppress the carrier leakage from a quantum well. This device has a high characteristic temperature of 268 K and low threshold current density of 200 A/cm(2) with 0.75 mm cavity length. It was found that the characteristics of lasers without strain-compensation are worse than those of strain-compensated lasers at 1.06 mu m wavelength. No catastrophic failure in strain-compensated lasers is observed during 1000 h aging test at 25 degrees C under an automatic power control of 250 mW while all 1.06 mu m lasers without strain-compensation show catastrophic failure within 1000 h. It suggests that the crystal quality of laser with strain compensation is much better than that without strain compensation. The formation of defects caused by the presence of the well with highly compressive strain more than 2% is significantly suppressed using strain-compensated layer with moderate tensile strain of 0.7%. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.