940-nm 350-mW Transverse Single-mode Laser Diode with AlGaAs/InGaAs GRIN-SCH and Asymmetric Structure

We report experimental results on 940-nm 350-mW AlGaAs/InGaAs transverse single-mode laser diodes (LDs) adopting graded-index separate confinement heterostructures (GRIN-SCH) and p,n-clad asymmetric structures, with improved temperature and small-divergence beam characteristics under high-output-power operation, for a three-dimensional (3D) motion-recognition sensor. The GRIN-SCH design provides good carrier confinement and prevents current leakage by adding a grading layer between cladding and waveguide layers. The asymmetric design, which differs in refractive-index distribution of p-n cladding layers, reduces the divergence angle at high-power operation and widens the transverse mode distribution to decrease the power density around emission facets. At an optical power of 350 mW under continuous-wave (CW) operation, Gaussian narrow far-field patterns (FFP) are measured with the full width at half maximum vertical divergence angle to be 18 degrees. A threshold current (I_th) of 65 mA, slope efficiency (SE) of 0.98 mW/mA, and operating current (I_op) of 400 mA are obtained at room temperature. Also, we could achieve catastrophic optical damage (COD) of 850 mW and long-term reliability of 60℃ with a TO-56 package.