Low-threshold CW operation of square-shaped semiconductor ring lasers (orbiter lasers)

Abstract

The CW operation of square-shaped semiconductor ring lasers is demonstrated with a threshold current as low as 6 mA. The ring resonator consists of straight waveguides and four total reflection mirrors. The lasers are fabricated using Br/sub 2/ dry etching on an InGaAs/GaAs strained single-quantum-well graded-index separate-confinement heterostructure wafer. The low-threshold CW operation is due to the high differential gain of the wafer and the low-loss total reflection mirror.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>