INHOMOGENEOUS PUMPING AND INCREASED FILAMENTATION THRESHOLD OF SEMICONDUCTOR-LASERS BY CONTACT PROFILING

The authors have fabricated inhomogeneously pumped broad area diode la sers using a novel digitated electrical contact pad to smooth the edge s of the transverse distribution of injected carriers. Experiments dem onstrate the effectiveness of this scheme in increasing the filamentat ion threshold and reducing near field modulation up to 35 times thresh old. The inhomogeneously pumped design has reduced threshold current a nd increased slope efficiency relative to a comparable standard broad area device.