Catastrophic degradation of InGaAsP/InGaP double-heterostructure lasers grown on (001) GaAs substrates by liquid-phase epitaxy

Abstract

Catastrophically degraded InGaAsP/InGaP double-heterostructure lasers grown on (001) GaAs substrates by liquid-phase epitaxy, emitting at 727 and 810 nm are investigated by photoluminescence topography, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. The degradation is mainly due to catastrophic optical damage at the facet, i.e., development of 〈110〉 dark-line defects from the facet, and rarely due to catastrophic optical damage at some defects, i.e., development of 〈110〉 dark-line defects from the defects inside the stripe region. These 〈110〉 dark-line defects correspond to complicated dislocation networks connected with dark knots, and are quite similar to those observed in catastrophically degraded GaAlAs/GaAs double-heterostructure lasers. The degradation characteristics of the InGaAsP/InGaP double-heterostructure lasers are rather similar to those in GaAlAs/GaAs double-heterostructure lasers concerning the catastrophic degradation.