OPTICAL STRENGTH OF MIRRORS OF HIGH-POWER QUANTUM-WELL LASER-DIODES WITH SEPARATE-CONFINEMENT OPERATING IN THE CONTINUOUS-WAVE MODE

The local temperature of the active region on the mirrors of laser dio des with separate confinement is calculated. It is shown that the maxi mum obtainable optical density for a laser mode on a mirror before cat astrophic degradation of the mirror occurs depends on the optical conf inement factor of the structure (Gamma-factor) and the thickness of th e surface layer of the active region with a high nonradiative recombin ation rate. Detailed studies of the local temperature of the active re gion on mirrors of Al-containing (AlGaAs/GaAs, InGaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs) and Al-free (InGaAsP/GaAs) quantum-well laser diodes with different value s of Gamma were performed. The results of these studies agree well wit h the calculations. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.