Correlation between the reliability of laser diodes and the crystal perfection of epitaxial layers estimated by high-resolution x-ray diffractometry

The dependence of the degradation of high-power quantum-well GaAs/AlGaAs la ser diodes, grown by molecular-beam epitaxy, on the crystal perfection of t he individual layers of the heterostructure is investigated. The crystal pe rfection of the layers is estimated by high-resolution x-ray spectrometry. A numerical fit of the diffraction-reflection curves is performed using the Debye-Waller static factor. It is shown that considerably higher crystal p erfection of laser heterostructures can be obtained by using as the wavegui de layers binary AlAs/GaAs superlattices instead of the solid solution AlGa As. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7826(99)02205-X].