STRAIN RELAXATION IN STRAINED BURIED HETEROSTRUCTURE LASERS

Calculations of the stress/strain distribution in a buried strained he terostructure laser are performed for active regions with aspect ratio s ranging from 1:1 to 40:1 and an overall misfit strain of 1% . The st rain relaxation is found to be small for the high aspect ratios over t he central 75% of the active region. Considerable relaxation of the st rain occurs at the edges of the active region, however, and throughout the whole cross section for the smaller aspect ratios. The maximum sh ear stress is found to occur at the corners of the strained region in agreement with previous calculations.