Catastrophic-Optical-Damage-Free InGaN Laser Diodes With Epitaxially Formed Window Structure

High-power InGaN-based laser diodes (LDs) are expected as light-sources of various high-power applications. The catastrophic-optical-damage (COD) is a major failure mechanism to limit the output power, where optical absorption at a light-emitting facet causes an irreversible damage to the LDs. In this paper, a window structure in InGaN-based LDs to suppress the COD is demonstrated for the first time. The structure is formed by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition growth over a recess placed besides of the ridge-waveguide. The In composition in the quantum well which is corresponding to the bandgap energy is reduced by controlling the local tilt angle at the sidewall of the recess. Thus, the formed window structure eliminates undesired optical absorption at the cleaved facet so that extremely high light output power over 2 W in narrow-stripe ridge-waveguide InGaN-based blue-violet LDs is achieved without any CODs.