Application of a composite plasmonic substrate for the suppression of an electromagnetic mode leakage in InGaN laser diodes

Abstract

We demonstrate an InGaN laser diode, in which the waveguiding quality of the device is improved by the introduction of highly doped (plasmonic) layer constituting an upper part of the GaN substrate. Thanks to this, we were able to suppress the electromagnetic mode leakage into the substrate without generating additional strain in the structure, in contrast to the typical design relying on thick AlGaN claddings. The plasmonic substrate is built as a stack of gallium nitride layers of various electron concentrations deposited by a combination of hydride epitaxy and high-pressure solution method. The mentioned improvements led to the reduction of the threshold current density of our devices down to 2 kA/cm2 and to the optimization of the near and far field pattern.