Semiconductor light-emitting device and method of fabricating the same

A semiconductor laser comprising:

• a substrate;
• layers epitaxially grown one above another on top of said substrate, said layers comprising a cladding layer of a first conductivity type formed from in.sub.x Al.sub.y Ga.sub.1-x-y- N (0.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.1, 0.ltoreq.y.ltoreq.1,0.ltoreq.x+y.ltoreq.1), an active layer formed from in.sub.z Ga.sub.1-z N (0.ltoreq.z.ltoreq.1), a cladding layer of a second conductivity type formed from In.sub.x Al.sub.y Ga.sub.1-x-y- N;
• an etching stop layer formed from Al.sub.a Ga.sub.1-a N (0.02.ltoreq.a.ltoreq.1) which has a smaller thermal etching rate than GaN;
• a current blocking layer of the first conductivity type formed from GaN and in which a stripe groove is formed by thermal etching;
• a protective layer formed from Al.sub.a Ga.sub.1-a N which has a smaller thermal etching rate than GaN and in which a similar stripe groove such as said stripe groove is formed;
• a light confinement layer of the second conductivity type formed from a gallium nitride based compound semiconductor;
• and
• electrodes electrically connected to said semiconductor layers of the first and second conductivity types, respectively.

A semiconductor light-emitting diode comprising:

• a substrate;
• a light-emitting layer forming portion formed from a gallium nitride based compound semiconductor deposited upon said substrate;
• an etching stop layer formed on said light-emitting layer forming portion;
• a current blocking layer formed on said etching stop layer and around a periphery of said light-emitting layer forming portion and formed from GaN of a conductivity type different from the conductivity type of an uppermost layer of said light-emitting layer forming portion;
• a current diffusing layer formed above the light-emitting layer forming portion exposed through a removed center portion of said current blocking layer, as well as on top of said current blocking layer remaining in areas surrounding said removed center portion;
• and
• electrodes electrically connected to a semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type and a semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type, respectively, in said light-emitting layer forming portion,
• wherein said etching stop layer is formed from a gallium nitride based compound semiconductor material containing Al, having a smaller thermal etching rate than that of said current blocking layer.