Manufacturing of laser diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy for coarse wavelength division multiplexing systems

Abstract

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) was used to grow ridge-waveguide distributed feedback (DFB) lasers for uncooled coarse wavelength division multiplexing applications. The lasers covered a wavelength range from 1270to1610nm and a temperature range of at least −20to85°C. The MBE growth includes atomic hydrogen cleaning of exposed InGaAsP surfaces for regrowth over a DFB grating. The devices show good performance over the whole wavelength range, with 85°C median threshold currents from 25to40mA depending on the wavelength. Accelerated lifetime testing indicates minimal degradation with TO packaged devices showing less than a 1% increase in operating current after 4000h at 85°C.