Apparatus comprising a laser adapted for emission of single mode radiation having low transverse divergence

Abstract: Disclosed is an edge-emitting semiconductor laser that has a single waveguiding structure, and that comprises means (140, 141) for reducing the transverse divergence of the far-field pattern of the laser emission. Typically these means comprise reflecting means (preferably transverse distributed Bragg reflectors) disposed parallel to the junction plane of the laser. Lasers according to the invention can have a highly stable single mode output having a substantially symmetrical far field pattern. Disclosed is also an advantageous method of making ridge-waveguide lasers that can, inter alia, be used to make lasers according to the invention. The method is a self-aligned method that does not comprise any critical alignment steps. Thus it is useful for making lasers that have a very narrow ridge waveguide. Such lasers are desirable because they can suppress lateral higher order modes.

Description: Field of the Invention: This invention pertains to edge-emitting semiconductor lasers, and to apparatus and systems that comprise such lasers. Background of the Invention Edge-emitting semiconductor lasers are finding application in many areas of technology, from optical fiber communication systems to compact disc players to read/write optical data storage systems. In many of these applications it would be highly desirable if the cross section of the laser beam were substantially circular. For instance, it will be readily recognized that the attainable coupling efficiency between an edge-emitting laser and an optical fiber (especially a single mode fiber) would typically be much higher if the laser had a substantially symmetric far field pattern than it is if the laser has a highly asymmetric far field pattern. As is well known, conventional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers typically have a highly asymmetric far field pattern. For instance, S. Uehara et al., Optoelectronics , Vol. 5, pp. 71-80 (1990) describe a 0.98 µm InGaAs strained-layer quantum well laser that is said to be an efficient pumping source for an Er-doped fiber amplifier. As disclosed on page 78 of that publication, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the far field pattern of the laser was 7° parallel to the junction of the laser but was 50° perpendicular to the junction, resulting in a coupling efficiency to single mode fiber of only about 20%. V. S. Shah et al., Journal of Lightwave Technology , Vol. 8(9), pp. 1313-1318 (1990) disclose a technique for improving the coupling efficiency between a conventional laser (i.e., a laser having a highly elliptical far field pattern) and a single mode fiber. The technique involves providing a fiber with a wedge-shaped end face and, typically, an up-tapered end. Maximum attained coupling efficiency was 47%. Such a technique clearly would be difficult to implement outside of the laboratory, and in any case applies only to laser/fiber combinations. Y. C. Chen et al., Electronics Letters , Vol. 26(17), pp. 1348-1350 (1990) disclose a laser having a beam divergence in the junction perpendicular to the junction that is comparable to that parallel to the junction. The laser is a single quantum well laser that comprises four passive waveguides, the resulting structure having 5 eigenmodes, with the operating eigenmode said to be the one with the largest confinement factor with the gain medium. If such a laser is operated at high power levels it frequently will not only emit the fundamental mode but also higher order modes, again resulting in decreased coupling efficiency. Decreased asymmetry of the far field pattern would not only make possible increased light collection efficiency but could, inter alia, also make it possible to relax the requirements of aberration correction. A relatively circular, low divergence-angle beam (e.g., 10° by 10°) also could greatly relax the misalignment tolerance for laser/fiber coupling. In view of the advantages that could be realized if a single mode edge-emitring semiconductor laser with reduced asymmetry of the far field pattern were available, lasers that can be reliably single mode at all relevant power levels and that can have a substantially symmetric far field pattern would be of great interest. This application discloses such lasers. Summary of the Invention The invention is defined in claim 1. It generally involves an edge-emitting laser having a single waveguide structure and comprising means for reducing the far field transverse divergence of the emitted radiation, as compared to an otherwise identical laser that lacks said means. Said means comprise reflector means, e.g., a transverse distributed Bragg reflector or TDBR, including a quasi-periodic TDBR, disposed essentially parallel to the junction of the laser. Typically the transverse far field divergence in devices according to the invention is at most twice the divergence in the plane of the junction, and preferably the two divergences are substantially equal and below about 20°. In a particular preferred embodiment that comprises periodic TDBRs the period Λ associated with the TDBRs is selected such that Λ= λ g , where λ g is the "guided" wavelength of the emitted radiation in the laser structure. In general, 2λ g > Λ ≧ λ g . IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. QE-15, No. 3, March 1979, pp. 128-134, discloses a symmetric distributed - Bragg - confinement (DBC) laser structure corresponding to the preamble of claim 1. Claim 4 relates to an apparatus comprising a laser as defined in claim 1. Brief Description of the Drawings FIG 1 schematically depicts an exemplary edge-emitting laser according to the invention; FIG. 2 schematically shows the conduction band edge of a relevant portion of an exemplary quantum well laser with transverse distributed Bragg reflectors (TDBRs); FIG. 3 shows the transverse field distribution in an exemplary laser according to the invention; FIG. 4 gives curves of transverse beam divergence versus TDBR index step Δn for an exemplary laser according to the invention; and FIG. 5 shows curves of radiation intensity versus transverse far field pattern for an exemplary laser according to the invention. Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments FIG. 1 schematically depicts an exemplary laser 10 according to the invention. On substrate 11 (e.g., n⁺ GaAs) is formed multilayer structure 12 which comprises active region 13 (exemplarily comprising one or more quantum wells) and transverse distributed Bragg reflectors (TDBRs) 140 and 141. Means 150 and 151 for making electrical contact to the laser are also shown. Numeral 16 refers to the radiation emitted by the laser. It will be understood that, aside from a metalization layer (not shown) and possibly other auxiliary layers (also not shown), the multilayer structure 12 is a semiconductor heterostructure with substantially abrupt (and typically also some continuous) changes in composition. It will also be understood that TDBRs need not be periodic but can be quasi-periodic (e.g., "chirped"). Use of quasi-periodic TDBRs can make possible a reduction in reflector thickness while substantially retaining the ability to reduce the transverse beam divergence. FIG. 2 schematically depict the conduction band edge of the relevant portion of the multilayer structure 12. The figure can also be understood to schematically depict the cross sectional compositional profile of the Structure. Active region 13 consists of three 7 nm thick In 0.2 Ga 0.8 As quantum wells and four GaAs barriers. Each TDBR (140, 141) consist of a multiplicity of semiconductor layers, exemplarily eight pairs of Al 0.15 Ga 0.85 As/Al 0.05 Ga 0.95 As layers. Numerals 200 and 201 refer to graded index separate confinement layers. The spacing between the two TDBRs advantageously is adjusted to be about one period, exemplarily about 0. 3 µm for a 0.98 µm laser. The theoretical basis for the design of a TDBR structure that can be used in a laser according to the invention is known. See, for instance, P. Yeh et al., Journal of the Optical Society of America , Vol. 67(4), pp. 423-438 (1977); especially equation 59. See also P. Yeh et al., Applied Physics Letters , Vol. 32(2), pp. 104-105 ( 1978). Briefly, the structure is such that the transverse wavevector of the lasing mode (k x ) satisfies the condition k x = π Λ , where Λ was defined above to be the period of the TDBR multilayers. This is similar to the well-known longitudinal round-trip phase condition for conventional λ/4-shifted distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. Just as the λ/4-shifted DFB laser uniquely selects a single longitudinal mode, a properly designed TDBR laser selects only the fundamental transverse mode and suppresses all the higher-order modes. An important design parameter for lasers according to the invention is Λ, the repeat distance of the TDBR. Typically, 2λ g > Λ ≧ λ g , where λ g is the "guided" wavelength, i.e., the wavelength in the waveguide of the laser radiation. Since semiconductor lasers typically comprise relatively high-index materials, it will be appreciated that λ g typically is much shorter than the wavelength of the laser radiation in air. By making Λ < 2λ g , formation of a 2nd-order grating surface-emitting-laser coupled cavity is prevented. This eliminates the possibility of higher order transverse modes. On the other hand, no transverse resonance can occur for Λ < λ g . It will be appreciated that, due inter alia to the wide range of possible λ g , the design of a laser according to the invention typically requires an iterative approach and self-consistent determination of the laser parameters. In a currently preferred embodiment of the invention Λ = λ g . This results, in effect, in the formation of two coupled cavities, one associated with the longitudinal dimension of the waveguide and the other corresponding to that of a 2nd-order grating vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). The existence of these "coupled cavities" results in particularly stable laser output (e.g., the lasing wavelength is less sensitive to temperature and/or output power variations), since generally only one of the many permitted longitudinal modes is both near the maximum of the gain spectrum and satisfies the 2nd order SEL roundtrip phase condition. The transverse optical field distribution in a laser having the layer structure of FIG. 2 is shown in FIG. 3, which indicates the corresponding position of the center of the active region of the laser as well as the TDBR positions. As can be seen, a substantial portion of the total optical field extends into the TDBRs. The evanescent decay of the optical intensity in the TDBR, which determines the beam divergence, is readily controlled by the difference of the refractive indices (Δn) of the TDBR. FIG. 4 shows the calculated transverse beam divergence versus Δn for three different spacings (t c ) between the TDBRs. By choosing the proper t c and Δn, the transverse beam divergence can be matched to the lateral divergence for, e.g., optimal coupling into single mode fiber, or to achieve minimum focused spot size. Experimental data agrees well with the theoretical results. The calculation was based on known theory as contained, for instance, in the above referred-to Yeh et al. papers. FIG. 5 shows the observed transverse far field pattern for various output powers of a broad-area TDBR laser (50 µm width) according to the invention. Extremely stable transverse far field patterns were observed for output powers from 0-1.38 W (per facet) without any change of the beam shape. The observed transverse (i.e., perpendicular to the plane of the junction) far field pattern and FWHM angle of 15.6° agree closely with the predictions of the theory. Lasers according to the invention can be produced by known techniques. Exemplarily, on a n⁺ GaAs substrate were deposited by MBE in sequence the following layers: a 500 nm n⁺ GaAs buffer layer; 8 pairs of Al 0.15 Ga 0.85 As/Al 0.05 Ga 0.95 As layers, each of the layers being 150 nm thick, n-doped to 5 x 10¹⁸ cm⁻³; a 100 nm thick Al 0.15 Ga 0.85 As layer, n-doped to 5 x 10¹⁸ cm⁻³; a 164 nm thick Al x Ga 1-x As layer (x linearly decreasing from 0.15 to 0), n-doped to 5 x 10¹⁸ cm⁻³; a 10 nm GaAs layer, n-doped to 3 x 10¹⁷ cm⁻³; three 7 nm thick In 0.2 Ga 0.8 As layers (not intentionally doped) separated by 12 nm thick GaAs layers (not intentionally doped); a 10 nm GaAs layer p-doped to 3 x 10¹⁷ cm⁻³; a 164 nm Al x Ga 1-x As layer (x linearly increasing from 0 to 0.15), p-doped to 5 x 10¹⁸ cm⁻³; a 100 nm Al 0.15 Ga 0.85 As layer, p-doped to 5 x 10¹⁸ cm⁻³; 8 pairs of Al 0.15 Ga 0.85 As/Al 0.05 Ga 0.95 As layers, each of the layers being 150 nm thick, p-doped to 5 x 10¹⁸ cm⁻³; and a p⁺⁺ 150 nm GaAs cap layer. The resulting multilayer structure was processed by conventional means (including lithography, wet etching, metalization, cleaving) into individual lasers.

Claims: An edge-emitting semiconductor laser capable of emitting single mode radiation, associated with the laser being a junction, a longitudinal direction and, in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, a first direction perpendicular to the junction and a second direction parallel to the junction, and associated with the radiation being a far field pattern having a divergence in the first and the second direction, respectively, the laser comprising a single waveguiding structure, and furthermore comprising means for reducing the divergence of the far-field pattern in the first direction, said means comprising reflector means (140,141) disposed essentially parallel to the junction and comprising a distributed Bragg reflector that comprises a multiplicity of semiconductor layers comprising a first layer having a first refractive index and a second layer contacting the first layer and having a second refractive index that differs from the first refractive index, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT associated with the distributed Bragg reflector is a layer period Λ selected such that 2λ g > Λ ≧ λ g , where λ g is the guided wavelength in the laser of the single mode radiation. A laser according to claim 1, comprising two distributed Bragg reflectors that are essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction and one or more quantum wells (13) disposed between the two distributed Bragg reflectors, and Λ = λ g . A laser according to claim 1, wherein the reflector is a quasi-periodic distributed Bragg reflector. Apparatus comprising a) a semiconductor laser, b) means for causing a current to flow through the laser such that the laser emits electromagnetic radiation; and c) utilization means adapted for receiving at least a part of the radiation emitted by the semiconductor laser, wherein the laser is an edge-emitting semiconductor laser according to any of claims 1-3. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the apparatus is optical fiber communication apparatus, and the means of c) comprise an optical fiber. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the apparatus is data processing apparatus, and the means of c) comprise optical data storage means.

Inventors: CHEN YOUNG-KAI, HONG MINGHWEI, WU MING-CHIANG, CHEN, YOUNG-KAI, HONG, MINGHWEI, WU, MING-CHIANG
Applicants: AT & T CORP, AT&T CORP.
Application year: 1991
Main classification: H01S3
IPC codes: H01S5, H01S3