Fabrication issues of oxide-confined VCSELs

To insert high performance oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) into the manufacturing arena, we have examined the critical parameters that must be controlled to establish a repeatable and uniform wet thermal oxidation process for A1GaAs. These parameters include the A1As mote fraction, the sample temperature, the carrier gas flow and the bubbler water temperature. Knowledge of these critical parameters has enabled the compilation of oxidation rate data for A1GaAs which exhibits an Arrhenius rate dependence. The compositionally dependent activation energies for A1(x)Ga(1.x)AS layers of x=1.00, 0.98 and 0.92 are found to be 1.24, 1.75, and 1.88 eV, respectively.