The reliability of (AlGa)As double-heterostructure lasers grown by molecular beam epitaxy

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Abstract
The cw accelerated aging behavior of proton‐bombarded stripe geometry lasers fabricated from MBE grown DH wafers have been studied. The laser diodes were formed into a 5‐μm‐wide shallow proton‐irradiated stripe geometry and operated without mirror coatings in dry nitrogen 70 °C ambients at constant power outputs of 2.5 mW and 3.0 mW/mirror. A feasibility demonstration of long lifetimes was obtained for lasers from three selected MBE wafers; where a median lasing lifetime of 8800 h with a standard deviation of 1.5 was found at 70 °C, which projects to a mean laser lifetime ≳106 h at room temperature. After initial aging, long‐term degradation rates as low as 0.7 mA/kh for the operating current at 70 °C have been measured. The present results also show that the rate of change of the operating current with aging for MBE diodes is more uniform than for typical LPE diodes fabricated with the same technology. Data are presented for lasers from one of the wafers that show that after 1500 h of 70 °C cw aging, many of the electrooptical characteristics are relatively unchanged.