Facet passivation process of high-power laser diodes by plasma cleaning and ZnO film

• A novel surface cleaning and passivation method is demonstrated for semiconductor devices with AlGaAs-containing facet structure. • The removal of surface states was implemented by Ar-plasma cleaning and passivated by ZnO films. • The method is applied to semiconductor lasers with comprehensive optimization, material characterization, device testing, and reliability results. • We demonstrated 21 W laser output power and reliable operation by utilizing this method. Passivation of dangling bonds at the cleaved mirror facet and its durability are fundamental features of semiconductor lasers to obtain reliable operation with a long device lifetime. The high non-radiative recombination activity of the surface states needs to be controlled to prevent the Fermi level pinning before the deposition of mirror coating materials. Here, we report the incorporation of plasma cleaning of the facet and ZnO film as a passivation layer for the fabrication of high-power semiconductor lasers. The Argon plasma cleaning process was investigated to eliminate surface contamination without damaging the cavity surface. The ZnO passivation films were systematically studied by varying the chamber pressure and sputtering power of the radio frequency (RF) sputter coating process. We obtained homogeneous and dense ZnO films with high surface quality and optical absorption coefficient of zero. By incorporating the optimum plasma cleaning and passivation layer parameters, GaAs-based laser devices with significantly improved catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD) power were achieved. COMD threshold was increased from 11.9 W to 20.7 W. The life test results demonstrate no failure for facet cleaned and passivated devices for more than 500 h, confirming the long-term effectiveness of the process for actual device integration.