Measurement of optical mode loss in visible emitting lasers

We describe a technique for direct measurement of the passive optical mode loss of a semiconductor laser or similar semiconductor waveguide structure, based upon measurement of the attenuation of optically excited luminescence in the guided mode as a function of distance traveled along the passive guide. A spectrometer is used to select luminescence in the low energy tail of the spectrum which is subject to very little reabsorption. We have applied the method to a series of highly strained GaInP quantum well laser structures and observe an increase in the mode loss from 9.9 cm(-1) for 1% strain to 46 cm(-1) for 1.7% strain. This correlates with the appearance of clustered regions in the highly strained wells observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.