Effects of design and processing on the reliability of high-power AlGaAs diode lasers

The use of high power laser diodes in applications such as pumping of solid state lasers requires devices which are highly reliable. We report the results of a series of experiments in which the effects on device reliability of several key processing steps are investigated. Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) is used to nondestructively characterize the Dark Line Defects (DLD5) throughout the lifetest and provides information regarding the source and propagation of the DLDs.