DEVICE CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEN II-VI SEMICONDUCTOR-LASERS

We have studied the device properties of blue-green II-VI lasers perta ining to the issues of thermal effects, leakage current and lateral wa veguiding. Improved heat sinking by epi-down mounting was found to dou ble the device lifetime. Leakage, mainly consisting of drift currents, is caused by the low p-type dopability of quaternary II-VI materials. This worsens on the lasing wavelength shortens. Although thermal inde x guiding was found to reduce the astigmatism of gain-guided lasers, i ndex guiding by a built-in refractive index profile is necessary to ob tain astigmatism values suitable for optical recording. (C) 1997 Elsev ier Science S.A.