Patterned dielectric mirrors for lateral overgrowth of GaN-based lasers.

The performance of GaN-based surface-emitting lasers may be greatly improve d by the use of highly-reflecting SiO2/ZrO2 multilayers for both cavity mir rors. We consider some of the limitations of GaN/Al(Ga)N multilayer mirrors and discuss alternative routes for incorporating dielectric multilayers wi thin InGaN/GaN quantum well surface-emitting devices, using lateral epitaxi al overgrowth. The use of lateral overgrowth techniques promise the benefit of reduced dislocation densities within the active region. The use of sing le layer lift-off techniques for the fabrication of patterned mirror templa tes suitable for overgrowth on GaN-on-sapphire is described. (C) 2001 Elsev ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.