Research on quantum well intermixing of 680 nm AlGaInP/GaInP semiconductor lasers induced by composited Si–Si3N4 dielectric layer

Abstract

Abstract The optical catastrophic damage that usually occurs at the cavity surface of semiconductor lasers has become the main bottleneck affecting the improvement of laser output power and long-term reliability. To improve the output power of 680 nm AlGaInP/GaInP quantum well red semiconductor lasers, Si–Si3N4 composited dielectric layers are used to induce its quantum wells to be intermixed at the cavity surface to make a non-absorption window. Si with a thickness of 100 nm and Si3N4 with a thickness of 100 nm were grown on the surface of the epitaxial wafer by magnetron sputtering and PECVD as diffusion source and driving source, respectively. Compared with traditional Si impurity induced quantum well intermixing, this paper realizes the blue shift of 54.8 nm in the nonabsorbent window region at a lower annealing temperature of 600 °C and annealing time of 10 min. Under this annealing condition, the wavelength of the gain luminescence region basically does not shift to short wavelength, and the surface morphology of the whole epitaxial wafer remains fine after annealing. The application of this process condition can reduce the difficulty of production and save cost, which provides an effective method for upcoming fabrication.