Room-temperature continuous-wave operation of an AlGaInP mesa stripe laser

Continuous-wave (cw) operation at temperature up to 33 °C of an AlGaInP/GaInP mesa stripe laser has been achieved for the first time. The threshold current was 106 mA at 30 °C for a device with a mesa stripe 6 μm wide and 250 μm long. The emission wavelength was 678 nm under cw operation at 20 °C. The wafer, which was grown by atmospheric pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, had a dually stacked cladding structure in addition to a conventional double heterostructure. The mesa structure was formed by selective chemical etching of GaAs/AlGaAs over layers. The effect of the mesa structure on threshold current density, thermal resistance, and other characteristics was examined.