Effect of growth terraces on threshold current density of (GaAl)As double-heterostructure laser

Abstract
The variation of threshold current density Jth caused by the optical scattering loss due to growth terraces is experimentally and theoretically examined. It is found that Jth of the lasers in which growth terraces are parallel to the cavity direction is about 20% smaller than that of the lasers in which growth terraces are perpendicular to the cavity direction when the active‐layer thickness d is 0.1 μm. The optical scattering loss due to growth terraces was estimated to be 50 cm−1 at d=0.1 μm when the cavity contains 10–15 terraces whose height and length are about 100 Å and 1μm, respectively.