Patterned dielectric mirrors for lateral overgrowth of GaN-based lasers.

The performance of GaN-based surface-emitting lasers may be greatly improved by the use of highly-reflecting SiO2/ZrO2 multilayers for both cavity mirrors. We consider some of the limitations of GaN/Al(Ga)N multilayer mirrors and discuss alternative routes for incorporating dielectric multilayers within InGaN/GaN quantum well surface-emitting devices, using lateral epitaxial overgrowth. The use of lateral overgrowth techniques promise the benefit of reduced dislocation densities within the active region. The use of single layer lift-off techniques for the fabrication of patterned mirror templates suitable for overgrowth on GaN-on-sapphire is described. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.