InGaN violet laser diodes grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Abstract

We report on the first InGaN quantum well laser diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Devices were grown by gas-source MBE using ammonia as a source of nitrogen and elemental group III sources. The devices were grown on commercially available GaN template substrates. The lasers consist of a separate confinement heterostructure including an active region consisting of three In 0.1 Ga 0.9 N quantum wells with a nominal thickness of 2 nm. P-type doping of GaN and AlGaN cladding regions was obtained without the use of post-growth thermal annealing. The lasers were fabricated into a ridge-stripe geometry with ridge width of 5 pm and length of 500-1500 μm. Electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) dry-etching was used to fabricate the laser facets. Under pulsed current injection conditions, the lasers exhibit a room temperature threshold current density of 22 kA cm -2 emitting at 400 nm.