Method of making a GaAs-based laser comprising a facet coating with gas phase sulphur
AssigneeLucent Technologies Inc.
InventorsUtpal Kumar Chakrabarti, William Scott Hobson, Fan Ren, Melinda Lamont Schnoes
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Abstract
In a method of making a GaAs-based semiconductor laser, a fully processed wafer is cleaved, typically in the ambient atmosphere, into laser bars, the laser bars are loaded into an evacuable deposition chamber (preferably an ECR CVD chamber) and exposed to a H.sub.2 S plasma. Following the exposure, the cleavage facets are coated in the chamber with a protective dielectric (preferably silicon nitride) layer. The method can be practiced with high through-put, and can yield lasers (e.g., 980 nm pump lasers for optical fiber amplifiers) capable of operation at high power.
Claims6
Method of making a GaAs-based semiconductor laser having a cleaved laser facet, the method comprising
- a) providing a body comprising a GaAs substrate with a Ga- and As-containing multilayer semiconductor structure thereon;
- b) cleaving the body into one or more laser bars, a given laser bar having a cleavage surface;
- c) introducing the given laser bar into an evacuable deposition chamber and depositing a dielectric layer on said at least one cleavage surface;
- and
- d) separating said laser bar into two or more laser chips;
- CHARACTERIZED in that the method comprises
- e) exposing, prior to depositing of the dielectric layer, the cleavage surface in the deposition chamber to a plasma of H.sub.2 S, and depositing the dielectric layer on the cleavage surface without exposing the laser bar to the ambient atmosphere.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.