Alternate doping of p-type and n-type impurities for AlGaInP selfaligned stepped substrate (S3) lasers

The authors fabricated lateral pn junctions in AlGaInP by alternate doping on a stepped substrate composed of [100] and [411]A faces with Zn and Se. It was found that the alternately-doped area on the[100] face becomes a uniform n-type conduction region; this is attributed to carrier depletion in lightly Zn-doped regions. The alternately-doped area on the [411]A face becomes a uniform p-type conduction region due to strong Zn diffusion over the lightly Se-doped regions. Using alternate doping, the authors fabricated a selfaligned stepped substrate (S/sup 3/) laser. The low resistivity and high-power operation (50 degrees C 35 mW) of this laser are comparable to those of lasers fabricated using simultaneous impurity doping.