Researchers at UCSB have developed a method of fabricating a semiconductor laser incorporating buried grating mirrors and photonic crystals, and more particularly, novel structures grown on substrates patterned by these gratings and photonic crystals. Each patterned layer may be engineered to act as a mirror, optical confinement layer, grating, wavelength selective element, beam shaping element, et cetera for the active layers. These novel laser structures rely on active layers directly grown on patterned substrates with multiple lateral epitaxial overgrowth (LEO) layers to improve contact structures and reduce waveguiding loss by contact electrodes.

File Number: 18968 

Web site: http://techtransfer.universityofcalifornia.edu/...

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Background
As semiconductor materials improve, the efficiency of semiconductor devices similarly improves. In lasers, improved efficiency enables the use of new wavelength ranges. Gallium nitride (GaN) based lasers are the most promising for a variety of applications and provide excellent emission from the UV to amber spectrum. However, nitride lasers are extremely difficult to manufacture. A pervious UCSB invention (2005-144) aimed to solve some challenges of GaN lasers by utilizing device growth techniques. There are still many issues with this type of laser. There is still need for improved methods of fabricating horizontal emitting, vertical emitting, beam shaped, distributed feedback lasers by growth over a patterned substrate with multiple overgrowth.