Method of fabricating a stacked active region laser array

Abstract

A method of fabricating monolithic arrays having closely spaced laser stripes which output laser beams with large, but well-controlled, wavelength separations. The method begins by depositing on a substrate a lower cladding layer and a plurality of stacked active regions with different bandgaps and which are separated by etch stop layers. The stacked active regions are stacked in order of decreasing energy bandgaps as one moves away from the substrate. One or more stacks are then formed by etching one or more active layers using a patterned mask and the etch stop layers such that the topmost active region that remains in each stack has a bandgap which corresponds to the desired laser beam color from that stack. An upper cladding layer is then grown over the exposed surfaces. Beneficially, a lateral confinement region is then created around the stacks (such as by using impurity-induced layer disordering). Finally, a capping layer and metallic contacts are added to each stack, and a common metallic contact is added to the substrate.