InGaAsP (λ=1.3 μm) strip buried heterostructure lasers grown by MOCVD

The authors describe InGaAsP-InP index guides strip buried heterostructure lasers (SBH) operating at 1.3 μm with a 1.1-μm guiding layer grown by a two-step atmospheric pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth procedure. These lasers are compared with buried heterostructure lasers having similar guiding layers under the active layer but terminated at the edge of the active layer. SBH lasers with 0.15-μm-thick active layer strips, 5-μm wide, and guide layers varying from 0 to 0.7 μm have threshold currents increasing from 34 to 59 mA, and nearly constant differential external quantum efficiencies of 0.2 mW/mA. The threshold current increases more rapidly with temperature with increasing guide layer thickness, with T₀ decreasing from 70°C for lasers without a guide layer to 54.3°C for lasers without a guide layer to 54.3°C for lasers with 0.7-μm-thick guide layers. Output powers of up to 30 mW/facet have been obtained from 254-μm-long lasers and were found to be insensitive to guide layer thickness