High power InGaAs/AlGaAs laser diodes with decoupled confinement heterostructure

High power InGaAs/AlCaAs laser diodes with decoupled confinement heterostructure(DCH) have been developed. Almost Al-free waveguide and cladding layers were realized in 980nm DCH laser diodes without degrading temperature characteristics. The extremely low electrical and thermal resistances allowed high power and efficient operation. The maximum CW output power as high as 9.5W was obtained with 100-mu m-aperture broad area DCH laser diode. The maximum efficiency was 55% at 2.5 W. The series resistance of 1.8-mm long cavity was 0.0462 and internal loss was 1.5cm(-1). The characteristic temperature(Tb) was 155K. The substantially Al-free DCH structure enables easy fabrication of various index guided laser diodes. We have developed two types of real index guided laser diodes, buried-ridge and self-aligned structure. Buried-ridge laser diode presented 1.3W maximum CW output power and 500mW single mode operation. Self-aligned structure laser diodes showed 1.4W CW output power and 700mW single mode operation with better reproducibility.