InGaN/GaN DFB laser diodes at 434 nm with deeply etched sidewall gratings

We report on deeply etched sidewall grating DFB lasers in the InGaN/GaN material system emitting at a single wavelength around 434 nm. GaN lasers have a wide range of applications in communications, displays and storage. The availability of a single wavelength device with a good side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) would allow further applications to be addressed such as sources for laser cooling and Fraunhofer line operation for solar background free communications. Sidewall etched gratings have the advantage of fabrication with no need for overgrowth and have been demonstrated in a range of other material systems and wavelengths. Importantly for GaN based devices, this design has the potential to minimise fabrication induced damage to the epi structure. We investigated two laser designs, one with 80 % duty-cycle 3rd order gratings and another with 39th order partial gratings. Simulation of the 2D waveguide sections was carried out to find the optimal grating width. For fabrication, the laser ridge and gratings were patterned in a single step using electron beam lithography and ICP etched to a depth of 500 nm. Contact metal was deposited and the sample thinned and cleaved into 1 mm long cavities. The as-cleaved 3rd order lasers emit in the pulsed regime with a SMSR of 20 dB and a peak single-mode output power of 40 mW. The output power is similar to that of parallel processed FP lasers. The 39th order lasers also exhibit narrow spectral width at an output power of 10 mW.