Cladding-less gan-based thin-film edge-emitting laser

Abstract

A cladding-less GaN-based thin-film edge-emitting laser is formed by: attaching a typical LED wafer to a substrate; removing its sapphire substrate to expose its n-GaN and the u-GaN buffer layers; thinning the film thickness to maximize the overlap factor; depositing another reflective metallic layer on the n-GaN surface for optical confinement and electrical contact; defining a pattern of the edge-emitting cavity by nanolithography techniques; and using an ICP etch to transfer the pattern to the thin film. In a second embodiment, the LED epitaxy structure is transformed into a laser diode by bonding it to a substrate with a Bragg reflector. After bonding and substrate removal, the bottom of the LED epitaxy is exposed for etching. In a third embodiment, a polariton edge-emitting laser is formed by utilizing Distributed Bragg Reflectors (DBRs) on both sides of the edge-emitting laser.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.