Patent ID: 7782920

Claim:
An edge-emitting semiconductor laser, comprising: a separate confinement heterostructure, the heterostructure having an active region, the active region including an active layer located between upper and lower waveguide layers, the active region being located between upper and lower cladding layers, and the active, waveguide and cladding layers being ordered crystalline epitaxially-grown layers; a cap layer located above a region of the upper cladding layer and defining a resonator region in the active region, the resonator region having a slow-axis parallel to the plane of the layers therein, a fast-axis perpendicular to the slow-axis, a longitudinal axis perpendicular to the fast- and slow-axes and first and second opposite sides parallel to the longitudinal axis; and a plurality of elongated disordered regions formed in at least one ordered crystalline waveguide layer of the active region, spaced apart from each other and extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of the resonator region, and located at least outside of the resonator region on both opposite sides thereof.