Comparative Studies On Dry And Wet Etching In Fabricating Ridge Semiconductor Laser

In this paper, we put forward an overview on development and application of ridge semiconductor laser, analyze their operating theory, material, structure and optimum design. Based on the lithography theory, we used dry and wet etching process to corrode the laser chip which has a cavity length of 1000μm and bar width of 10μm. Results are as follows:laser chip using dry etching process shows that vertical is good, but the surface is rough. However, the opposite result was achieved by using wet etching process.The experimental results indicate that the ridge semiconductor laser made by dry etching process is with a far field divergence angle of 9 degree, vertical divergence angle of 28 degree, and linear PI curve. A far field divergence angle of the ridge semiconductor laser made by wet etching process is 10 degree, and vertical divergence angle is 30 degree, and PI curve began to bend at 120mA.We conclude that the ridge semiconductor laser fabricating in dry etching process is better than the wet one.