Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy parallel to the active stripe of degraded buried heterostructure distributed feedback laser devices

Abstract

We demonstrate for the first time that cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy can be applied parallel to the active stripe of a distributed feedback buried heterostructure laser diode to identify the cause for degradation during reliability qualification. A dominant defect mechanism is found to be the generation of dislocation loops at or near the grating/waveguide-layer interface which subsequently propagate up through the multilayer structure. The vertical segments of the loops tend to be trapped onto the {111} planes to form a V-shaped configuration as revealed in the (011) cross section. A dislocation reaction mechanism is proposed to explain the observed dislocation configuration. Furthermore, complicated dislocation loops are grown out of the segments of dislocation threading through the active region forming <100≳ dark line defects revealed by the electroluminescence. The defect growth mechanism is believed to be a condensation of point defects induced by the nonradiative recombination assisted point defect migration process similar to that previously observed in degraded channeled substrate buried heterostructure lasers. The nucleation of dislocations at or near the grating/waveguide layer interface is consistent with a high interfacial strain observed in the degraded devices.