Method of producing semiconductor laser element with mirror degradation

Abstract

In a method of producing a semiconductor laser element with suppression of mirror degradation by the laser light which can operate stably with a high output power, a laser wafer is prepared to have a layered structure of semiconductor layers including an active layer, followed by forming contact electrodes on the top and the bottom of the wafer, cleaving the wafer in a ultra high vacuum chamber to provide a laser bar, and covering cleaved end faces of the laser bar with semiconductor amorphous layers, as protective layers, of a compound semiconductor material between a third group element and a fifth group element in the element periodic table, to form a protected laser bar. An example of the amorphous layer is of GaAs semiconductor material. Then, a laser element without mirror degradation is obtained by forming dielectric films on the protective layers. Alternatively, the protected laser bar is introduced into a chloride VPE apparatus wherein the protective layers are removed and window layers are formed on the cleaved end faces. Then, dielectric films are formed on the window layers to complete another laser element with mirror degradation suppressed.