Thermal Rollover around 460 mW Observation in Single-Lateral Mode 780 nm Laser Diodes with Window-Mirror Structure

Narrow stripe 780 nm window-mirror structure laser diodes (LDs) with and without a leakage current blocking structure in the window-mirror region were studied in terms of catastrophic optical degradation (COD) at facets. It was experimentally proved that a non-leakage-current-injection structure using proton implantation was effective in improving the COD level even in LDs with a window-mirror made by multi quantum well disordering. The thermal rollover phenomenon at around 460 mW at room temperature was observed in this LD. This is the highest output power recorded among narrow stripe LDs with a wavelength of 780 nm. Stable lateral mode operation up to 350 mW was also realized. This LD is suitable for the next generation of high speed (48 ×-) CD-R/RW drives necessitating 250 mW class LDs.