Uniform and high-power characteristics of AlGaInP visible laser diodes and their four-element arrays fabricated on a three-inch φ wafer

The versatile potential of a three-inch diameter wafer processing technology has been successfully demonstrated by the realization of a large number of 680 mn high-power laser diodes (LD´s) and their individually addressable four-element arrays on a single wafer at one time. The excellent uniformities of the laser characteristics, such as threshold current, operating current, beam divergences and lasing wavelength have been obtained. The LD´s have been operating stably for over 2500 hours under the condition of 60°C and 30 mW. In the four-element LD arrays with a junction-up configuration, the linear power-current (P-I) characteristics have been obtained up to 50 mW, even at 50°C for each element. Moreover, the thermal crosstalk, defined as the output decrease rate caused by the temperature rise due to neighboring elements operation of 2.9-11.1%, has been realized in the high-power simultaneous operation.