An AlGaAs/GaAs short-cavity laser and its monolithic integration using microcleaved facets (MCF) process

Abstract

This paper describes the microcleaved facets (MCF) process developed for AlGaAs/GaAs laser fabrication which can avoid the previous substrate cleavage and therefore be applicable to preparing both discrete short-cavity lasers and optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEIC's). An AlGaAs/GaAs double heterostructure ridge-waveguide laser with an extremely short cavity length, namely 20 μm, was first realized by this process. A threshold current as low as 20 mA and a single longitudinal mode lasing were achieved. The usefulness of this process for integrating a laser and a monitoring photodiode on a GaAs substrate is also demonstrated.