Report

on
LASER DIODE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS
Submitted to
Dr. Andres La Rosa
Portland State University
Physics 464
March 8, 2005

by
Jason Hill

Abstract
This report presents an overview of the Diode Laser; its construction, function and application.
Lasers in the form of laser diodes are in widespread use today. Diode lasers are used in a large
number of industrial applications; the most prevalent use of the laser diode is probably in CD and
DVD drives for computers and audio/video media systems. Diode lasers are also used in many
other applications ranging from laser photocopy machines and printers to optical fiber
communications, medicine, and some areas of IC manufacture.

Introduction
In this paper I will explain the basics of how a laser diode functions. I will describe the
differences between a laser diode and a normal diode and a light emitting diode. I will also
define the terms homojunction and heterojunction and how they relate to laser diodes. I will then
explain the differences between edge emitting lasers and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers
(VCSELs).
Due to their small size, low power consumption, and precision, laser diodes are used in a variety
of applications. They are ideal for optical storage devices such as CD and DVD-ROMs. They
are also well suited for medical purposes such as interferometry which is used in devices like the
pulse oximeter. They are also much more efficient at pumping solid state lasers than the older
flash-bulb mechanisms. And due to their inexpensive production, they are used in handheld laser
pointers which are used to the benefit of many presenters and are also used to the frustration of
many movie-goers.

Content
How a Laser Diode Works
When a diode is forward biased, holes from the p-region are injected into the n-region, and
electrons from the n-region are injected into the p-region. If electrons and holes are present in
the same region, they may radioactively recombine that is the electron falls into the hole and
emits a photon with the energy of the bandgap. This is called spontaneous emission, and is the
main source of light in a light-emitting diode.
Under suitable conditions, the electron and the hole may coexist in the same area for quite some
time (on the order of microseconds) before they recombine. If a photon of exactly the right
frequency happens along within this time period, recombination may be stimulated by the
photon. This causes another photon of the same frequency to be emitted, with exactly the same
direction, polarization and phase as the first photon.

In a laser diode, the semiconductor crystal is fashioned into a shape that is somewhat like a piece
of paper very thin in one direction and rectangular in the other two. The top of the crystal is ndoped, and the bottom is p-doped, resulting in a large flat p-n junction. The two ends of the
crystal are cleaved so as to form perfectly smooth, parallel edges; two reflective parallel edges
are called a Fabry-Perot cavity. Photons emitted in precisely the right direction will be reflected
several times from each end face before they are emitted. Each time they pass through the
cavity, the light is amplified by stimulated emission. Hence, if there is more amplification than
loss, the diode begins to lase.
This general description of laser diode is what is known as a homojunction laser diode.
Unfortunately, they are extremely inefficient. They require so much power that they can only be
operated in short pulses; otherwise the semiconductor would melt. Although historically
important as will be shown later, they are simply not practical.
The double heterojunction laser makes use of a low bandgap material which is sandwiched
between two high bandgap layers. One commonly-used pair of materials is GaAs with AlGaAs.
Each of the junctions between different bandgap materials is called a heterojunction, hence the
name double heterojunction (DH) laser. The advantage of a DH laser over a homojunction laser
is that the region where free
electrons and holes exist
simultaneously is confined to the
thin middle layer. This means
that many more of the electronhole pairs can contribute to
amplification and not as many
electron-hole pairs are left out in
the poorly amplifying periphery.
In addition, light is reflected
from the surface of the
heterojunction, so the light gets
confined to the region where the
amplification takes place, which
improves the efficiency of the
device. See Figure 1.
The top pane of Figure 1 shows
the band structure of a double
heterojunction in equilibrium,
meaning no voltage applied. The
middle area shows EC which is
the potential energy barrier
needed to be overcome for
recombination of electrons and
holes to take place. The bottom
pane shows the same double
heterojunction in forward active

Figure 1: Bandgap diagram of an NpP

AlGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction

mode. The energy level of the larger bandgap N-type GaAlAs has been raised so that it is now
above the EC potential energy barrier. This allows the electrons to flow into the p-GaAs region
where they are confined by the lower bandgap material. Similarly, holes flow in from the P-type
AlGaAs to the p-GaAs valence band. The electrons and holes are confined where they can
combine radioactively. This form of population inversion isnt enough by itself to produce
lasing. For stimulated emission to take place, the light must remain in the cavity long enough to
interact with other electrons. This is achieved by creating a Fabry-Perot cavity with mirrored
ends, where the light can reflect back and forth many times before leaving the cavity. If the gain
equals loss, lasing will occur.
The other type of laser I will discuss is the Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL).
The basic structure of the VCSEL is shown in Figure 2. The main difference between the edge
emitting and surface emitting lasers is the orientation of the optical cavity. The layers of
semiconductive material are orthogonal to the direction of emitted light. During recombination,
photons can be emitted in many different directions, but the direction of emitted light will be
controlled by the orientation of the reflective mirrors.

Figure 2: Metallic Reflector VCSEL

Figure 3: Etched Well VCSEL

Figure 4: Air Post VCSEL

Due to the VCSELs short optical cavity length, the photon

has very little time to stimulate another electron to
recombine, therefore better mirrors needed to be developed.
Metallic mirrors were not reflective enough; they could
only provide 30% reflection. The VCSELs needed 99.9%
reflection. This was achieved through the use of layered
dielectric materials called Distributed Bragg Reflectors
(DBRs). Through the evolution of VCSELs, engineers
came up with several different models which improved
performance. The first improvement on the Metallic
Reflector VCSEL came with the Etched Well VCSEL as
Figure 5: Buried Regrowth VCSEL
seen in Figure 3. This model used layered dielectrics for its
reflective mirrors. It also had an etched well to control the area of recombination. The next
evolution came with the Air Post VCSEL as seen in Figure 4. This model used DBRs and
created a post by etching the surrounding material away. This post also worked to control the
area of recombination. Finally Figure 5 shows the Buried Regrowth VCSEL. This model took

the Air Post VCSEL and through an epitaxial process, filled in the etched area with another
material. This allowed for a more precise control over recombination.
Another way to control the properties of the laser diode was to introduce quantum wells into the
laser device. This is quite common in modern VCSELs. If the middle layer is made thin
enough, it starts acting like a quantum well. This means that in the vertical direction, electron
energy is quantized. The difference between quantum well energy levels can be used for the
laser action instead of the bandgap. This is very useful since the wavelength of light emitted can
be tuned simply by altering the thickness of the layer. The efficiency of a quantum well laser is
greater than that of a bulk laser due to a tailoring of the distribution of electrons and holes that
are involved in the stimulated emission process.
The problem with quantum well devices is that the thin layer is simply too small to effectively
confine the light. To compensate, another two layers are added on, outside the first three. These
layers have a lower refractive index than the center layers, and therefore contain the light more
effectively. This type of design is called a separate confinement heterojunction (SCH) laser
diode. Almost all commercial laser diodes since the 1990s have been SCH quantum well
diodes.

History of the Diode Laser

In 1952, while investigating group III-V
compound semiconductors; Heinrich
Welker of Siemens in West Germany
identified GaAs as a member of the
semiconductor family. However, the
benefits of this compound were not
immediately evident. It was thought to
be not nearly as useful as silicon since
gallium arsenide had no stable native
oxide (like silicon had with SiO2) and it
was difficult to produce in a high-purity
form.
These reasons prevented
researchers from exerting much effort to
the study of GaAs diodes as late as 1958.
By the early 1960s new technologies in the growth of semiconductor crystals evolved, leading
to the commercial availability of GaAs diodes. The search for a higher voltage tunnel diode led
researchers to study GaAs diodes and they found that a GaAs p-n junction had extremely high
internal quantum efficiencies, as high as 85 to 100 percent. These discoveries demonstrated that
a semiconductor diode could be a very efficient generator of photons and could perhaps be the
most efficient converter of electrical energy into optical energy ever demonstrated.

Applications of Laser Diodes I

Laser Pointers
The most visible applications of laser diodes are the ever more
popular laser pointers. The basic laser pointer, which can be
purchased for only a few dollars, is the standard red laser pointer.
The red laser pointer emits a 670 635nm beam. The human eye
perceives the 635nm beam to be about five times brighter than the
670nm beam. The red laser pointer is quite a simple device and is
very inexpensive to manufacture. Figure 6 shows a diagram of a
typical red laser pointer.

Figure 6: Typical Red Laser Pointer

The green laser pointer is

a much more complex
device. Figure 7 shows a
diagram of the green
laser pointer.
It is
actually a Diode Pumped
Solid State Laser (DPSS)
that uses a laser diode to
emit an 808nm beam that
optically
pumps
an
Nd:YVO4 crystal, which
in turn emits a 1064nm
beam. This beam is then
processed by a KTP
crystal, which halves the
wavelength to 532nm.
This is very close to
555nm, the wavelength
to which the human eye
is most sensitive. This
means that at the same
power as the red laser
(<5mW), the green laser
will appear about 30
times brighter.

Figure 7: Green DPSS Laser Pointer

Applications of Laser Diodes II

Optical Storage Devices
CD-ROM drives operate at a wavelength of 780nm,
which is near-infrared. DVD-ROMs operate at
650nm, which is within the red spectrum. The size
of the beam which can be focused from a laser
diode is dependent upon the wavelength of the light
that is emitted. The smaller the wavelength, the
tighter the beam; and a tighter beam means a
smaller diffraction spot. Figure 8 shows the relative
sizes of diffraction spots for different colored laser
beams.

Figure 9: CD vs. DVD vs. BD

Figure 8: Relative diffraction spot size

of different colored lasers

The amount of data that can be

stored using an optical system is
dependent upon the size of the
diffraction spot. If you want to
store more data, you need a
higher wavelength laser. The
optical storage industry has been
moving
towards
higher
wavelength lasers over the last
few years. The most prevalent
high-wavelength technology is
Blu-Ray laser. Blu-Ray is a
copyrighted
technology
developed in 1997 that is being
used by Dell, HP Hitachi, Sharp,
Sony, Disney and many others.
The Blu-Ray is a 405nm blueviolet laser that can store almost
six times as much data as a
standard 650nm DVD. Figure 9
diagrams the differences in
beam size and data resolution for
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and BD
(Blu-Ray Disc).

Conclusion
The laser diode is a spectacularly versatile device due to both its incredibly small size and the
precision with which it can be manufactured. I began this investigation of the laser diode
because I was intrigued with its history. The race to be the first to bring the supposition of a
semiconductor diode to fruition was fascinating. The air of competition drove the researchers to
new heights faster than I would have thought possible.
Throughout this paper I have discussed the basics of laser diodes in terms of materials and
physical structure. Even though my explanations may have seemed simplistic, I hope that some
of the elegance of this device has shown through. The prevalence of the laser diode in modern
technology cannot be overstated. Advances in material engineering are currently taking laser
diodes to unforeseen achievements. Quantum advances are making laser diodes more precise
and efficient that ever before. Progress is also being made at an ever increasing rate at
improving the power output of laser diodes.
In conclusion, the laser diode is an integral part of the laser family and is of great concern to
modern physics and especially optical processes.

Works Cited
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Goldwasser, Samuel M. Diode Lasers. Sams Laser FAQ. 19 Dec. 2004. 28 Jan. 2005
<http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/laserfaq.htm#faqtoc>.
Laser Diode. Radio Electronics.com. 28 Jan. 2005. Adrio Communications Ltd. 28 Jan. 2005
<http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/data/semicond/laser_diode/laser_diode.php>.
Suematsu, Y. Semiconductor Lasers and Photonic Integrated Circuits. London: Chapman & Hall,
1994.