Patent ID: 8355422

Claim:
A method of fabricating a GaN edge emitting laser comprising a semi-polar GaN substrate, an active region, an N-side waveguiding layer, a P-side waveguiding layer, an N-type cladding layer, and a P-type cladding layer, wherein: the GaN substrate defines a 20 2 1 crystal growth plane and a glide plane; the N-side waveguiding layer comprises a GaN-based superlattice or bulk waveguiding layer; the P-side waveguiding layer comprises a GaN-based superlattice or bulk waveguiding layer; the active region is interposed between and extends substantially parallel to the N-side SL waveguiding layer and the P-side SL waveguiding layer; the N-type cladding layer is interposed between the N-side waveguiding layer and the GaN substrate; the P-type cladding layer is formed over the P-side waveguiding layer; a strain-thickness product of the N-side SL waveguiding layer exceeds its strain relaxation critical value and a strain-thickness product of the N-type cladding layer exceeds its strain relaxation critical value such that resulting strain relaxation is mono-directional along the glide plane of the GaN substrate; and the N-side and P-side GaN-based waveguiding layers are grown at a growth rate that exceeds approximately 0.09 nm/s to optimize waveguide planarity.