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US 4,785,457 AGranted
Heterostructure semiconductor laser
AssigneeRockwell International Corporation
InventorsPeter M. Asbeck, David L. Miller
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The crystallographic plane-dependent, amphoteric nature of Si-doped AlGaAs is used to provide a low threshold semiconductor laser. An active layer of AlGaAs is sandwiched between an injection layer and a current confining layer of AlGaAs. The injection layer is doped to be n-type conductivity. The confining layer is amphoterically doped with Si to be n-type in a (100) plane and p-type in a (111)A plane. The resulting p-n junctions, heterostructure, and geometry provide the current and the optical confinement for the semiconductor laser.
Claims15
In a semiconductor laser:
- an epitaxial active layer of a semiconductor;
- an epitaxial injection layer of a semiconductor on one side of the active layer;
- an epitaxial confinement layer of a semiconductor on the other side of the active layer having a dopant that provides a first conductivity in first crystallographic planes and an opposite conductivity in second crystallographic planes having a different orientation, the confinement layer having a first portion which lies within the first crystallographic planes and another portion which lies within the second crystallographic planes on both sides of the first portion whereby current across the active layer can be confined to the first portion by the change in conductivity type of the confinement layer;
- and
- means for making electrical contact to the injection layer and to the confinement layer.
2 more elements
In a semiconductor laser:
- an epitaxial active layer of AlGaAs;
- an epitaxial injection layer of AlGaAs doped to be n-type conductivity on one side of the active layer;
- an epitaxial confining layer of AlGaAs on the other side of the active layer, the confining layer being amphoterically doped with Si and having an n-type conductivity portion in a (100) crystallographic plane and a p-type conductivity portion in a (111)A crystallographic plane, the n-type portion confining the p-type portion to a strip within the confining layer;
- and
- means for making electrical contact to the injection layer and to the confining layer, whereby current across the active layer can be confined by the p-type conductivity portion of the Si-doped confining layer.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.