Material issues in AlGaInP red-emitting laser diodes

Red-emitting AlGaInP quantum well lasers are now a well-established commercial product with a range of applications, many in high-volume, low-cost market sectors. Although the operation of these devices is generally understood, there are a number of critical aspects of the device structure, determined by the: crystal growth process, which have an influence on key performance characteristics. A number of these are considered in this paper, particularly strain limits and non-planar growth, the effect of interface roughness on optimisation of the well width for minimum threshold current, and the influence of the doping density of the p-cladding layer on the temperature sensitivity of threshold current. These factors are examined in terms of the mechanisms by which they affect the operation of the device. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.