Aging behavior and surge endurance of 870-900 nm AlGaAs lasers with nonabsorbing mirrors

The reliability of 870-900 nm AlGaAs TJS lasers has been investigated. An emission wavelength longer than 870 nm is realized by utilizing the band tailing effect due to heavy Zn-diffusion in the active region. A nonabsorbing mirror structure is employed to eliminate both gradual degradation and catastrophic damage of the facets. Stable continuous operation for over 10 000 hours has been confirmed at ambient temperatures higher than 50°C and output powers more than 5 mW/ facet. MTTF longer than 10
⁵
hours is expected for screened devices. Surge endurance has been improved to be nearly one order of magnitude higher than that for a conventional structure.