Low damage reactive ion etching process for fabrication of ridge waveguide lasers

The damage produced during CH/sub 4//H/sub 2/ reactive ion etching (RIE) processes has been measured using low temperature photoluminescence. The damage depth profile was estimated and a low level damage RIE process has been developed. The process has been used to fabricate InGaAs/InGaAsP ridge waveguide lasers containing 5 quantum wells with threshold currents, 43-45 mA for 500 /spl mu/m lasers, that are indistinguishable from those of wet-etched devices.