Index-guided arrays of Schottky barrier confined lasers

Abstract
We describe simple, self‐aligned, index‐guided arrays containing up to 10 ridge waveguide lasers. The Ohmic contact and current confining Schottky barrier are provided by a single broad area metallization. This technique requires only a single growth on a planar (100) substrate and is compatible with all epitaxial growth techniques. Using conventional liquid phase epitaxy of GaAlAs we have obtained astigmatism‐free arrays with threshold current as low as 20–30 mA per laser and power output linear to 300 mW/facet at temperatures as high as 100 °C, with the temperature dependence characterized by a large T0 of 240 °C. High optical quality of the output beam is demonstrated by very smooth and narrow far‐field patterns, both in the phase‐coupled and un‐coupled extremes of the waveguide separation.