Kinetics of growth of AlAs oxide in selectively oxidized vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

Abstract

The wet oxidation kinetics of AlAs layers of interest in vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) fabrication are investigated in detail. The process is modeled as a diffusion-reaction process. For oxidation over a long time interval, variation of the oxidation rate with the variation of the radius of the etched mesa of the VCSEL is observed. A theory has been developed to obtain the rate equation of the oxidation process and the dependence of the oxidation rate on the size of the VCSEL is explained.