Optically induced catastrophic degradation in InGaAsP/InP layers

Abstract

Laser-induced catastrophic degradation in InGaAsP layers has been investigated. Catastrophic dark line (CDL) defects are generated at the spontaneous radiation flux in excess of 100 MW/cm2, significantly higher than in similar GaAlAs structures. In contrast to CDL’s in GaAlAs these dark lines are shown to be due to localized melting at material defects and not at cleaved mirror facets. In view of the very high power threshold this type of catastrophic degradation should be of limited importance for the InGaAsP lasers.