Characteristics of native-oxide-confined InGaP-(Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/)/sub 0.5/In/sub 0.5/P quantum-well ridge waveguide lasers

We report 670-nm native-oxide confined GaInP-(Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/)/sub 0.5/In/sub 0.5/P quantum-well ridge waveguide laser diodes. The devices are fabricated from a compressively strained GaInP-(Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/)/sub 0.5/In/sub 0.5/P quantum-well separate confinement heterostructure laser structure. Wet chemical etching and wet oxidation process are used to form native oxide confined ridge waveguides. The oxidation process converts the p-Al/sub 0.5/In/sub 0.5/P cladding layer into AlO/sub x/ after ridge etch. Laser diodes of 3.5-μm-wide ridge waveguide operate with threshold currents below 13.5 mA and differential quantum efficiencies over 35%/facet.