Method of manufacturing semiconductor laser element

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor laser element having an integrated diffraction grating, said method comprising:

• forming a grating film on the surface of a cladding layer of the semiconductor laser element;
• forming a pattern forming film on said grating film, and
• forming a first resist film on said pattern forming film;
• performing a beam exposure only in a predetermined area of the first resist film to expose a grating pattern of the grating structure in said predetermined area;
• developing the first resist film to remove the first resist film the pattern forming film except form remaining first resist film corresponding to said exposed grating pattern in said predetermined area and first resist film outside of said predetermined area;
• etching said pattern forming film using the remaining first film as a mask to remove the pattern forming film except for remaining pattern forming film corresponding to said remaining resist film, and then removing the remaining resist film;
• forming a second resist film on the remaining pattern forming film and grating film;
• providing a mask on an area of said second resist film substantially corresponding to said predetermined area;
• performing a non-beam exposure of the second resist film in an area other than said masked area and developing the non-beam exposure area to remove the second resist film only from this area thereby uncovering the remaining pattern form film in non-beam exposure area;
• etching said uncovered remaining pattern forming film;
• removing any remaining portions of the second resist film to expose remaining pattern form film;
• etching the grating layer using the remaining pattern forming film as a mask to thereby form said grating pattern in said grating, and then removing all of the pattern forming film;
• adding to said cladding layer such that said remaining grating material is embedded in the cladding layer.

A semiconductor laser device manufactured using a method of manufacturing a semiconductor laser device comprising the steps of:

• forming a layer of diffraction grating material for making the diffraction grating structure;
• performing a beam exposure technique only in at least one first area of said layer where said diffraction grating structure is formed;
• masking said diffraction grating structure;
• and
• performing a non-beam exposure technique in a second area of said layer where said diffraction grating structure is not formed.