Abstract

Lasers operating in the visible region 633 nm-670 nm are in demand for such applications as optical disk systems, laser beam printing and optical sources for pumping solid-state lasersl, including Cr:LISAF and Cr:LISCAF lasers. As in other wavelength regions, it would be of obvious advantage to bandgap shift regions of the as-grown structures to form low-loss modulator and coupler sections, and non-absorbing mirrors for high power operation. In this paper we present for the first time, to our knowledge, quantum well intermixing using photoabsorption induced disordering (PAID) in the GaInP/AlGaInP. This technique has already been successfully developed for use in the InGaAsP/InP. In the process, the sample is irradiated with a high-power laser whose wavelength is larger than the bandgap of the layers in the epitaxial semiconductor structure. The layers are intermixed when heat is generated by carrier cooling and non-radiative recombination. Large blue-shifts of the bandgap can be obtained and both bandgap tuned lasers2 and modulators3 have been demonstrated using PAID in the InGaAsP system with a Nd:YAG laser used to induce intermixing . The optical source used for the GaInP/AlGaInP system was an argon ion laser operating CW.

© 1996 Optical Society of America