Abstract
In this paper, we report the fabrication and characteristics of 1.3-μm strained multiple-quantum-well ridge-waveguide AlGaInAs/InP laser diodes and the influence of reflective films on threshold current, slope efficiency, characteristic temperature and long-term reliability. A higher characteristic temperature and improved linearity of CW light-current characteristics can be obtained by increasing the facet reflectivity. With a high reflectivity coating of 70% on the front facet and 90% on the rear facet, the laser diodes exhibit a high characteristic temperature of 92 K, an output power of 15 mW at 120°C, and only 0.7 dB slope efficiency drop at the output power of 30 mW and 20°C. Long-term aging was applied to test the facet-coating reliability using the constant power mode of 10 mW at 85°C. The laser diodes have exhibited stable operation up to 6000 h and no significant degradation has been observed.