Long-lived dry-etched AlGaAs/GaAs ridge waveguide laser diodes

Chemically assisted ion beam etching has been utilized to fabricate ridge waveguide GaAs/AlGaAs lasers which are as reliable, if not more so, than their oxide stripe counterparts. Results on 60- and 5-μm-wide ridge waveguide lasers with 600 μm cavity lengths as compared to oxide stripe lasers with the same configuration are reviewed and multikilohour lifetimes are demonstrated.