IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. QE-13, NO.
8 , AUGUST 1977
~ l . I , l l ~ , . l l l l
0 5 10 15
Waveguide Width ( A m )
Fig. 12. Mode number versus waveguide width (open circles, experi-
mental results;horizontal line, calculated result in case An = 2 X
ranges.
1) Because selective etching techniques were used, fabrica-
tion of these lasers is simple, and the lasers have reproducible
characteristics.
2) Because the spreading of current towards the lateral
direction is small, an increase of threshold current level is not
so large as the stripe width is narrowed.
3) Because the transverse modes were controlledwith an
effective step change of the refractive index, lasers with 4-pm
guide widths showed stable lowest order transverse modes at
currents up to about five times threshold. The experimental
results of mode number agree approximately with the results
of analysis by an equivalent refractive index method. But in
this analysis, we only considered the refractive index.For
more detailed discussion, maybe we must consider injection
carrier effect and gain-loss effect.
The Bent-Guide Structure AIGaAs-GaAs
Semiconductor Laser
Abstract-The laser oscillation of GaAs-AlGaAs DH-structure laser
with a bent guide was reported. The threshold current density Jth was
about 3-15 kA/cm2, and the longitudinal mode wassingle up to 1.7
times Jth. From the simulation experiments, it was concluded that this
mode selectivity was due to the multicavity effect.
I.INTRODUCTION
T HE single-longitudinal mode oscillation of the semicon-
ductor laser is one of the most important problems of the
development of high bit-rate single-mode fiber transmission
system.
Manuscript received October 18, 1976.
The author is with the Electrical CommunicationLaboratories,
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.
4) Kinks were not observed as light output-current char-
acteristics of 4-pm width SLW lasers.
This strip-loaded waveguide structure could be used for
making optical integrated circuits comprising active and pas-
sive elements. Especially, this structure isvery useful for
directional coupler because the refractive index difference in
the direction parallel to the junction plane is small.
l l / l . . I I I I
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
20
The authors wish to thankDr. Y . Furukawa and Dr. K.
Kumabe for many helpfuldiscussions.
REFERENCES
[ l ] T. P. Lee, C. A. Burrus, B. I. Miller, and R. A. Logan,
“Al,Gal,As double-heterostructure rib-waveguide injection
laser,” IEEE J. QuantumElectron., vol. QE-11, pp. 432-435,
July 1975.
[2] T. P. Lee and A. Y. Cho, “Single-transverse-mode injection lasers
with embedded stripe layer grown by molecular beam epitaxy,”
Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 29, pp. 164-166, Aug. 1976.
[3] H. Furuta, H. Noda, and A. Ihaya, “Novel opical waveguide for
integrated optics,”Appl. Opt., vol. 13, pp. 322-326, Feb. 1974.
[4] V. Ramaswamy, ?Strip-loaded film waveguide,” Bell Syst. Tech.
J., vol. 53,pp. 697-704, Apr. 1974.
[5] H.C. Casey, Jr., D. D. Sell, and M. B. Panish. “The refractive index
of Al,Gal,As between 1.2 and 1.8 eV,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol.
24, pp. 63-65, Jan. 1974.
[6] H. Yonezu, I. Sakuma, K. Kobayashi, T. Kamejima, M. Ueno, and
Y. Nannichi, “AGaAs-Al,Gal,As double heterstructure planar
stripe laser,” Japan J. Appl. Phys., vol. 12, pp. 1585-1592, Oct.
1973.
[7] S. Iida and Y. Watanabe, “Spectral characteristics and inhomo-
geneities near active regions of double-heterostructure (GaA1)
As-GaAs lasers withstripegeometryconfiguration,” Japan J.
Appl. PhyS.,vol. 13, pp. 1249-1258, Aug. 1974.
NOBUO MATSUMOTO
The longitudinal mode selection has been achieved with a
grating as external mirror [ l ] , [2] , and with composite
resonators [3], [4]. Recently, DFB [5], TJS [ 6 ] , and ITG
lasers [7] , [8] have been successful in the single-mode oscilla-
tion.
The injection-locking methodbythe coupling of thetwo
lasers with the different cavity lengths was also very effective,
but unstable coupling was one of the fataldefects.
The bent-guide structure laser, unlike the straight laser, is
able to have any cavity length on the chip. The two coupled
lasers with thedifferent cavity lengths, therefore, could be
formedonthe same chip. Besides the usefulness of this
structureforthe optical components,it appeared thatthe
bent-guide structure laser had the mode selectivity in itself.
In the first part of the paper, the fabrication method and
the oscillation characteristics of the bent-guide structure
MATSUMOTO: BENT-GUIDE SEMICONDUCTOR LASER
n -GaAs
Zn- diffused
area
n-GaAs
T A u - G e - N i
Fig. 1. Schematic representationof mesa structure of a bent guide.
Ip
Fig. 2. Structure of a bent guide.
lasers arediscussed and these are compared withthecon-
ventional planar stripe or high mesa stripe lasers.
The second part is concerned with an investigation of the
mode selectivity of the bent-guide structure laser. From the
simulation experiments, it has been concluded that this mode
selectivity is due to the multicavity effect.
11. THE STRUCTURE AND THE FABRICATION METHOD
The structure of the bent-guide laser is illustrated schemati-
cally in Figs. 1 and 2 . After p-and n-type ohmic contacts were
made by evaporating Cr-Au and Au-Ge-Ni, respectively, on
each side of the AlGaAs-GaAs double-hetero epitaxial wafer,
with the selective Zn-diffusioned area, the high mesa structure
waveguide with 40-pm width was formed by the preferential
chemical-etching technique down into the first epitaxial
layer. Cry Au, and GaAswere etched by concentrated HC1,
KI + 12, and H2S04 t H202 t H 2 0 (1 : 10: l),respectively.
The bent-guide structure is shown in Fig. 2. Two stripe
directions are perpendicular to each of the cleaved surfaces
(1 10) and ( l i O ) , respectively, and the surface A is parallel to
(100) direction and perpendicular to the wafer surface (001).
The cross-section profiles of the ridge were different in the
(1 10) and (1iO) directions [9] . In this structure, the resonator
was formed by the three surfaces, two cleaved ones and the
surface A . This bent structure is similar to the corner wave-
guide of the millimeter wave, and it has a smaller radiative and
conversion loss thanthe circularly bent one with a small
radius. From the experiments on the guiding of the infrared
He-Ne laser light ( h = 1.15 pm),it became clear that this
bending loss was as low' as 30 percent and so the threshold
current density would not increase more than 10 percent.
The characteristics of the semiconductor lasers depend on
the epitaxial wafers from which they are fabricated. Three
kinds of laser structures, therefore, were formed on the same
chip, a conventional planar stripe laser or high mesa stripe one
and guide-structure ones with a bent corner (L-type laser) and
561
U - t w e laser Mesa-stliue laser
--I I- 1OOpm
Fig. 3. Typical diode chip. Three kinds of laser structures were formed
on this chip; highmesa stripe, L-type,and U-type lasers.
I
8350 8400 8450 8500 ~ B ~
Wavelength
Fig. 4. Emission spectrum of a typical L-type laser.
with two bent comers (U-type laser). A typical diode chip is
shown in Fig. 3. Each laser has an electrode part to contact
with a gold wire.
111. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LASER OSCILLATION
At room temperature, current pulses with a duration of 300
ns and a 30-Hz repetition rate were applied to the lasers, and
the lasing characteristics were measured.
The threshold current densities ofa planar stripe, mesa
stripeandL-type laser were 3, 3-5, and 3-15 kA/cm2, re-
spectively. The U-type laser was not oscillated. This wide
distribution of the threshold current density of a mesa stripe
and L-type laser may be due to theuncontrolled scattering
loss bythe roughness of the sidewalls and the surface A .
In the L-type laser especially, thethresholdcurrent density
was very sensitive to the perpendicularity of the surface A .
The emission spectrum of a typical L-type laser is shown in
Fig. 4. The spontaneous emission has a broad peak, and just
above the threshold, a narrow peak of the stimulatedemission
appears at 8458 A. The longitudinal mode of an L-type laser
wasvery often single atcurrentup to about1.7 times the
threshold value (Fig. 5). In some cases, two longitudinal modes
were oscillated. Fig. 6 shows the spectrum of the two mode
oscillations which are separated by 2 A, corresponding to the
total length of L-type waveguide 400 pm. As shown later, an
L-type laser on another epitaxial wafer had two longitudinal
modes separated by 30 A.
On the other hand, the spectrum of planar
a stripe laser with
the length of 500 pm is shown in Fig. 7, which has many
longitudinal modes.
From these results, the L-type laser seems to have the mode
selectivity. In the next section, wewilldiscuss the origin of
this mode selectivity.
562 IEEEJOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS,VOL. QE-13, NO. 8 , AUGUST 1977

1.7Jth

8350 8370 (A) Fig. 8. Details of bending corner. Diodes were polished down to active
Fig. 5. Spectrum of single-mode operation of L-type laser is shown to layer. Its surface and cross section shown here.
three values of current density.

0.8 A

Ih J=1.3Jth

Wavelength ( )

Fig, 6 . Spectrum of two-modes oscillation of L-type laser.

300

Fig. 9. Connected-stripe structure laser and its oscillation spectrum.

0500 z 85jO ( H)
Fig. 7. Spectrum of a planar stripe laser with the length 500 pm.

Iv. THE ORIGIN OF THE MODE SELECTIVITY

In order to know the details of the bending corner, the diode
was polished down to the active layer. Its surface and cross
section are shown in Fig. 8. The width of two stripe guides are
different from one another (20 pm and 30 pm, respectively),
and these guides are connected by the reflection of the surface
A which inclines at the angle of 45". The guided-light wave is
partly reflected at the connected point, and so the resonator
apparently has the multicavity effect.
To investigate this multicavity effect, the connected-stripe
structure laserswere formed. Two stripes withthedifferent
widths (20 and 30 pm) were connected as shown in the under-
parts of Figs. 9-1 1. In these structures, the connected points
300 E
p
F
correspond to mirrors, so each resonator is a three- or four- Fig. 10. Connected-stripe structure laser and its oscillation spectrum.
MATSUMOTO: BENT-GUIDE SEMICONDUCTOR LASER 563

8340 €370 8400 8430

r&030
ti,

270

Fig. 11. Connected-stripe structure laser and its oscillation spectrum. (c)
Fig. 12. (a) Spectrum of L-type laser. (b) Structure of L-type laser.
(c) Connected stripelaser with multicavity equivalentto L-typelaser (b).
mirror system. In Fig. 9, the guides of 20- and 30-pm width,
which have lengths of 200 pm and 100 pm, respectively, were
connected. At currents of 1.1 and 1.3 times threshold,the
longitudinal modes were oscillated every three modes. This is
apparently due to thedouble-cavityeffect.In Fig. 10, an 1_3u3Jt_ 1.0
approximation of a 15-A interval among the longitudinal
modes, corresponds to theshortest cavity length 5 5 p m . In
the laser with the shortest cavity length of 30 pm (Fig. 1l),
A 2.0

the longitudinal mode is almost single, and there is a weak

mode group which is 30 A distant, which corresponds to
3 0 - p length.
From these results, the mode selection effect of L-type lasers
can be explained by the multicavity structure. The FWHM of
the oscillation spectrumofthe straight laser (both of the
planar and mesa stripe lasers) depends on the epitaxial wafer
on which it is fabricated, and it distributes from 10 to 50 A.
L-type lasers fabricated on a epitaxial wafer hadtwo longi-
tudinal mode groups which were at a distance of about 30 A
(Fig. 12(a)). This L-type laser's structure is shown in Fig. 12(b),
and Fig. 12(c) is the equivalent stripe structure, where the Fig. 13. Transient spectrum of multicavity structure laser.
30-pm space corresponds to that between two stripes in the
bending corner. The shortest mode interval 2 A corresponds
to the total laser length 480 pm, and the interval 30 A between spectrum at the high-speed modulation [ 101 was not observed
two peaks corresponds to the shortest cavity length 30 pm, in this case.
which is very similar to the case of Fig. 11. In an L-type laser
on another epitaxial wafer, the second peak is suppressed, and V. CONCLUSION
only a single mode is oscillated, which is the case of Fig. 5. We have reported here on the single-mode laser oscillation of
Finally, we briefly discuss thetransientproperty of the a GaAs-AlGaAs double-heterostructure laser with a bentguide,
multicavity laser. Fig. 13 shows the results of thetransient and concluded that this mode selectivity was due to the multi-
spectroscopy. This laser had a structuresimilar to thatof Fig. 9 cavity effect. The connected stripe structure (both bent and
and the lengths of the two stripes were 210 and 70 pm, and so straight guide) is apparently one of the most simple methods
the longitudinal modes were oscillated every four modes. of the single-longitudinal mode operation, and the bent-guide
From Fig. 13, we can know this mode selection was effective structure could be applied to many kinds of integrated optical
even in the short-time region. The long wavelength shift seems components, for example a ring resonator,a directional
to be due to the thermal effect. Thespreading of the oscillation coupler, and so on.
5 64 IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. QE-13, NO. 8 , AUGUST 1977

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Theauthor would like to thank Drs. K. Noda, S. Ohara,
Y. Furukawa, and K. Kumabe for theirencouragement through-
out this work. He would also like to thank Y. Seki, G. Iwane,
T. Kawakami, and H.Kawaguchi for useful discussions and
S. Ando for fabrication of the laser diode.
REFERENCES
[ l ] R. Ludeke and E. P. Harris, “Tunable GaAs laser in an external
dispersive cavity,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 20,pp.499-500,
June 1972.
[2] J. A. Rossi, S. R. Chinn, and H. Heckscher, “High-power narrow-
linewidth operation of GaAs diode lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol.
23, pp. 25-27, July 1973.
[3] P. G.Eliseev,I. Ismailov, M. A. Manko, and V. P. Strakhov,
“Injection
semiconductor laser with compound resonator,”
JETP Lett., vol. 9, pp. 362-363, May 1969.
[4] A. P. Bogatov, P. G. Eliseev, L. P. Ivanov, A. S . Logginov, M. A.
Manko, and K. YA. Senatorov, “Study of the single-mode injec-
tion laser,’’ IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-9, pp. 392-394,
Feb. 1973.
[5] M. Nakamura, K. Aiki, J. Umeda, A. Katzir, A. Yariv, and H. W.
Yen, “GaAs-AIGaAs double-heterostructure injection lasers with
distributed feedback,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-11,
pp. 436-439, July 1975.
[6] H. Namizaki, “Transverse-junction-stripe lasers with a GaAsp-n
homojunction,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-11, pp.
427-431, July 1975.
[7] Y. Suematsu, M. Yamada, and K. Hayashi, “Integrated twin-
guide AlGaAs laser with multiheterostructure,” IEEE J. Quantum
Electron., vol. QE-11, pp. 457-460, July 1975.
[8] Y . Suematus, M. Yamada, T. Kambayashi, and K. Kishino, “Mode
selectivity and amplification in twin-guide lasers,” presented at
Topical Meeting on Integrated Opt., Salt Lake City, UT, 1976.
[9] Y. Tarui, Y. Komiyama, T. Sakamoto, H. Iida, and A. Shoji,
“Monolithic passivated stripegeometrydoubleheterostructure
injection lasers by selective chemical etching,” in Proc. 7th
Coni Solid State Devices, Tokyo, Japan, 1975; suppl. to Japan.
J. Appl. Phys., V O ~ .15, pp. 293-299, 1976.
[ 101 T. Ikegami, “Spectrum broadening and tailing effect in directly
modulated injection lasers,” in Con$ Rec., European Coni Opt.
Fiber Commun., London, England, Sept. 1975, p. 11 1.

The New Origin of Dark-Line Defects in Planar-Stripe

DH Lasers

Abstract-The transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations causes of the seed defects have not been investigated suffi-
of degraded and undegraded diodes have shown that usually, though ciently. Inparticular,the seed defects introducedbythe
not always, small dislocation loops are introduced into the stripe area
fabrication process have not been reported except in elemen-
during selective zinc diffusion for stripe fabrication. These loops grow
to giant dislocation loops, which correspond to dark linedefects tary cases, such as scratches. Though it has also been reported
(DLD’s) during device operation. The growth velocity of DLD’s which thatthe deeply Zn-diffused diodes degrade rapidly, the de-
gradation mechanism and defects induced by Zn diffusion
originate from the loops with Burgers vectors of a/2 (011) inclined is
more rapid than that of a [OOl] normal and a/2 (110) parallel to the have not been investigated [4].
junction plane, and is the same order of magnitude as the growthveloc- The purpose of this paper is to show that small dislocation
ity of common DLD’s which originate from the threading dislocations.
loops grow to giant dislocation loops corresponding to DLD’s
during device operation, and that small loops are introduced
I. INTRODUCTION into the stripe area, along the stripe edges or the diffusion
front, during the zinc-selective diffusion process for stripe

S 0 FAR,it is known that rapid degradation in GaAs- fabrication. Furthermore, it is shown thattheloopswith
AlGaAs double-hetero lasers is causedby the growth of the Burgers vectors of a/2 (011) inclined at 45” to the junction
dark-line defects (DLD’s) in the active layer during device plane (001) grow more rapidly than other types of loops with
operation.Furthermore, DLD’s
have been
identified as Burgers vectors of a [OOl] normal and a/2 (1 10) parallel to the
three-dimensional dislocation networks by transmission elec- junction plane. The growth velocity of DLD’s which originate
tron microscope (TEM) observations [ 1] , [ 2 ] . Dislocation from the loops is the same order of magnitude as that of the
threading through the active layer or stacking faults have been common DLD’s which originate from thethreading dislocations.
proposed as the seed defects of DLD’s [l ] -[3]. However, the
11. EXPERIMENTAL
Manuscript received October 21,1976. The diodes used for the experiment had the double-hetero
The authors are with the Musashino Electrical Communication Labo-
ratory, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation, Tokyo, structure grown by the liquid-phase epitaxial method and the
Japan. stripe geometry produced by zinc-selective diffusion using a