Abstract

The lifetime of today's (Al)GaAs laser diodes is mainly determined by degradation, processes in the susceptible mirror facets whose specific, microscopic origins are not always well known. In this context, we have probed the lattice disorder in laser mirrors by Raman microprobe spectroscopy and correlated the degree of disorder to the local facet heating of operating laser diodes and to the power limit level at catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD).

© 1993 Optical Society of America