Absorption induced by activated magnesium (Mg) in a p-type layer contributes considerable optical internal loss in GaN-based laser diodes (LDs). An LD structure with a distributed polarization doping (DPD) p-cladding layer (CL) without intentional Mg doping was designed and fabricated. The influence of the anti-waveguide structure on optical confinement was studied by optical simulation. The threshold current density, slope efficiency of LDs with DPD p-CL, and Mg-doped CL, respectively, were compared. It was found that LDs with DPD p-CL showed lower threshold current density but reduced slope efficiency, which were caused by decreasing internal loss and hole injection, respectively.

Au80Sn20 alloy is a widely used solder for laser diode packaging. In this paper, the thermal resistance of GaN-based blue laser diodes packaged in TO56 cans were measured by the forward voltage method. The microstructures of Au80Sn20 solder were then investigated to understand the reason for the difference in thermal resistance. It was found that the microstructure with a higher content of Au-rich phase in the center of the solder and a lower content of (Au,Ni)Sn phase at the interface of the solder/heat sink resulted in lower thermal resistance. This is attributed to the lower thermal resistance of Au-rich phase and higher thermal resistance of (Au,Ni)Sn phase.

Green laser diodes (LDs) still perform worst among the visible and near-infrared spectrum range, which is called the “green gap.” Poor performance of green LDs is mainly related to the p-type AlGaN cladding layer, which on one hand imposes large thermal budget on InGaN quantum wells (QWs) during epitaxial growth, and on the other hand has poor electrical property especially when low growth temperature has to be used. We demonstrate in this work that a hybrid LD structure with an indium tin oxide (ITO) p-cladding layer can achieve threshold current density as low as 1.6kA/cm2, which is only one third of that of the conventional LD structure. The improvement is attributed to two benefits that are enabled by the ITO cladding layer. One is the reduced thermal budget imposed on QWs by reducing p-AlGaN layer thickness, and the other is the increasing hole concentration since a low Al content p-AlGaN cladding layer can be used in hybrid LD structures. Moreover, the slope efficiency is increased by 25% and the operation voltage is reduced by 0.6 V for hybrid green LDs. As a result, a 400 mW high-power green LD has been obtained. These results indicate that a hybrid LD structure can pave the way toward high-performance green LDs.

The inhomogeneous broadening parameter and the internal loss of green LDs are determined by experiments and theoretical fitting. It is found that the inhomogeneous broadening plays an important role on the threshold current density of green LDs. The green LD with large inhomogeneous broadening even cannot lase. Therefore, reducing inhomogeneous broadening is a key issue to improve the performance of green LDs.

GaN-based continuous-wave operated blue-violet laser diodes (LDs) with long lifetime are demonstrated, which are grown on a c-plane GaN substrate by metal organic chemical vapor deposition with a 10 × 600 μm² ridge waveguide structure. The electrical and optical characteristics of a blue-violet LD are investigated under direct-current injection at room temperature (25 °C). The stimulated emission wavelength and peak optical power of the LD are around 413 nm and over 600 mW, respectively. In addition, the threshold current density and voltage are as small as 1.46 kA/cm² and 4.1 V, respectively. Moreover, the lifetime is longer than 1000 hours under room-temperature continuous-wave operation.