GaAs Degradation.
Abstract
A comprehensive investigation has been concluded of the physics of GaAs laser diode failure and techniques to improve their reliability. Gradual degradation has been shown to depend partly on the structural perfection of the devices, and modifications of the close-confinement single heterojunction (AlGa)As-GaAs diodes have now yielded laboratory devices with reasonably stable performance over several thousand hours at duty cycles of 0.04% operating at 300 to 400 W/cm of facet. These operating conditions are those required in a number of major applications, including gated illuminators. The present life is an order of magnitude better than previously possible with homojunction lasers. Catastrophic degradation, in which the laser facet is damaged, has been prevented by the use of antireflective SiO films and/or a new laser structure, the large optical cavity laser (LOC) developed in the course of the present program. This new device introduces a new degree of freedom in injection laser design by permitting either high-peak-power, low-duty-cycle operation with very high efficiency, or high-average-power operation. Experimental and theoretical studies have also been made with the objective of reducing the laser beam divergence. A new model has been proposed to explain the mode propagation in heterojunction lasers which will be useful in future efforts to reduce the beam divergence which now limits the application of the very low threshold lasers. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0882976
Entities
People
- Harry F. Lockwood
- Henry Kressel
- Henry S. Sommers Jr.
- Michael Ettenberg
Organizations
- Sarnoff Corporation