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US 4,727,556 AGranted
Semiconductor lasers fabricated from impurity induced disordering
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsRobert D. Burnham, Robert L. Thornton
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AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsRobert D. Burnham, Robert L. Thornton
Estimating the term…
A semiconductor laser having a single lasing element or multiple lasing elements is provided with a structural feature in at least one cladding region of the laser that permits partial compositional disordering upon the application of impurity induced disordering (IID) techniques, which disordering is of sufficient magnitude to bring about deformity in the compositional structure of the deposited layer(s) of the laser resulting in changes in the refractive index properties of the induced disordered regions compared to adjacent and remaining undisordered regions thereby creating optical cavities functioning as optical waveguides for propagating radiation generated upon lasing. The structural feature that may be utilized may be a disordering layer having low refractive index properties but not being sufficiently thin to exhibit quantum size effects. Such a feature may comprise a thin layer, e.g. of GaAlAs of high Al content or may comprise an edge or interface established between a high refractive index cladding layer and a lower refractive index cladding layer of a multiple cladding heterostructure.
In a semiconductor laser having a plurality of semiconductor layers with at least one lasing element disposed in an optical cavity established therein, said layers including an active region for light wave generation and propagation under lasing conditions and cladding layers formed on the boundary surfaces of said active region, the improvement comprising at least one disorderable layer formed in or at the surface of one of said cladding layers an impurity induced into said disorderable layer laterally adjacent to either side of said optical cavity to cause a partial, vis a vis a complete, interdiffusion of elemental constitutents of said disorderable layer with elemental constituents of at least one adjacent semiconductor layer to produce partially disordered alloy regions transversely of said disorderable layer having an average lower refractive index profile compared to the original refractive index profile present in said optical cavity thereby creative of an index waveguide for said optical cavity.
In a semiconductor laser having at least one lasing element disposed in an optical waveguide relative to an active region for light wave generation and propagation under lasing conditions, a pair of first or inner cladding layers sandwiching said active region, a pair of second or outer cladding layers sandwiching said first cladding layers, an impurity induced into regions laterally adjacent to either side of said laser element to cause a partial, vis a vis a complete, interdiffusion of elemental constituents of said disorderable layer with elemental constituents of at least one of said outer cladding layers to produce partially disordered alloy regions transversely of said disorderable layer having average lower refractive index profile compared to the original refractive index profile present in said said optical waveguide therebetween.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.