Aluminum gallium nitride laser

Abstract

An improved aluminum gallium nitride material is disclosed, which permits the fabrication of improved optical devices such as laser mirrors (1, 2), as well as quantum wells and optical filters. The optical devices are constructed by depositing a buffer layer (7) of aluminum nitride onto a substrate (6), with alternating layers (10, 12, 14, etc.) of Al.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x N and Al.sub.y Ga.sub.1-y N, where x and y have values of between 0 and 1. Edge emitting lasers (31), surface emitting lasers (52) and quantum wells operating in the ultraviolet region are disclosed. The method of the present invention permits the ability to deposit thin, reproducible and abrupt layers of the improved material to permit the construction of rugged, solid state devices operating at ultraviolet wavelengths.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.