Abstract

Since the first reports in 1985 of cw operation of GaInP/AlGaInP visible light laser diodes¹ considerable progress has been made with respect to threshold current, lifetime, output power, and wavelength reduction. These improvements can be attributed mainly to the introduction of strained layer quantum wells in the active region. The grown-in biaxial strain can be compressive or tensile.³ The modification of the valence subband structure results in a reduction of the in-plain effective hole mass which lowers the transparency current of the laser³ Recently we reported a record low threshold current density of 240 A/cm² for compressively strained single quantum well lasers emitting at 675 nm ⁵

© 1993 Optical Society of America