This application claims priority of Taiwan Patent Application No. 111210218, filed on Sep. 20, 2022, and the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
The present application relates to a laser device, and, in particular, to a laser device with a conductive layer.
Laser devices are used in a wide range of applications while the research and development of related materials is ongoing. For example, III-V group semiconductor materials may be applied to various laser devices, and the laser diode may be used in various fields, for example, luminance, medical treatment, display, communication, sensing, and power system. Therefore, with the development of technology, there are still many needs of technology research and development for laser devices. Although existing laser devices have generally been adequate for their intended use, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects. Therefore, there are still some issues to be addressed regarding laser devices.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a laser device. The laser device includes a stack of epitaxial layers, a first conductive layer, an intermediate layer, and a first electrode. The stack of epitaxial layers has a central region and an edge region. The stack of epitaxial layers includes a first reflective structure, an active region disposed on the first reflective structure, a second reflective structure disposed on the active region. The first conductive layer disposes on the stack of epitaxial layers and covers the central region and at least a part of the edge region. The intermediate layer has a first opening that corresponding to the central region of the stack of epitaxial layers, wherein the intermediate layer comprises insulating material or metal. The first electrode disposes on the first conductive layer.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a laser device. The laser device includes a substrate, a stack of epitaxial layers, a conductive layer, a bonding layer, and a first electrode. The stack of epitaxial layers disposes on the substrate and includes a first reflective structure, a current confinement structure disposed on or within the first reflective structure, an active region disposed on the current confinement structure, and a second reflective structure disposed on the active region. The current confinement structure defines a current conductive region. The conductive layer disposes between the substrate and the stack of epitaxial layers. The bonding layer disposed between the substrate and the conductive layer. The first electrode disposes on the stack of epitaxial layers.
The embodiment of the application can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings. It is noted that, in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, various features are not drawn to scale and are merely used for illustration. In fact, the dimensions of the various components may be arbitrarily increased or reduced to clearly represent the features of the embodiments of the present disclosure. In the accompanying drawings:
The following disclosure provides many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing different components of the provided subject matter. Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below to simplify the present disclosure. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. For example, the formation of a first component over or on a second component in the following description may include embodiments in which the first and second components are formed in direct contact, and may also include embodiments in which additional components may be located between the first and second components, such that the first and second components may not be in direct contact. In addition, the present disclosure may repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples. This repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and does not in itself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations. Besides, various components may be arbitrarily drawn in various scale for the purpose of simplicity and clarity.
Further, spatially relative terms, such as “under,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper” and the like, may be used herein for simply describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. The spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if a device in the figures were turned over, elements described as being “lower” or “below” other elements or components would then be changed as “above” the other elements or components. Therefore, illustrative term “below” may both have orientations of “above” and “below”. The component may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein may likewise be interpreted accordingly.
In order to increase the carrier recombination to improve the laser performance of the existing vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) diode during operation, a current confinement layer may be disposed in the laser device. Nevertheless, in the conventional laser device, the current may concentrate at the opening edge of the wet oxidation layer with current confining function, thereby decreasing the performance of the laser device. To address the issues, in the laser device provided by embodiments of the present application, a conductive layer may be disposed above and/or below a current confinement layer, and an opening of the upper or lower conductive layer may be located corresponding to the opening of the current confinement layer. Therefore, in the present disclosure, not only the concentrated current at the opening edge of the wet oxidation layer with current confining function may be further reduced, but also current confinement properties may be increased, thereby improving the quality of the laser device.
The stack of epitaxial layers 104 may be formed of epitaxial stacking of several semiconductor compound layers. In some embodiments, the stack of epitaxial layers 104 sequentially includes, from bottom to top, a first reflective structure 106, an active region 108, and a second reflective structure 110.
The first reflective structure 106 and the second reflective structure 110 include III-V group compound semiconductor materials respectively. In an embodiment, the first reflective structure 106 and the second reflective structure 110 may include a stack of multiple III-V group compound semiconductor materials. In detail, the first reflective structure 106 and the second reflective structure 110 have a stack including multiple pairs of periodically alternating layers with two different refractive indexes. For example, pairs of AlGaAs layer with a high aluminum composition and AlGaAs layer with a low aluminum composition periodically alternating stack to form a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR). Consequently, the light emitted from the active region 108 may be reflected within the first reflective structure 106 and the second reflective structure 110 to form a coherent light. In some embodiments, the number of pairs of periodically alternating layers with two different reflective indexes may be 2 to 100 (such as 20, 40, 60, or 80 pairs). In some embodiments, the reflective index of the first reflective structure 106 is higher than that of the second reflective structure 110, thereby emitting the coherent light toward the direction away from the substrate 102. In some embodiments, the material of the first reflective structure 106 and the second reflective structure 110 may respectively include InGaAs, GaAs, GaP, InP, AlGaInP, AlGaAs, and/or a combination thereof.
An active region 108 for light emission is disposed between the first reflective structure 106 and the second reflective structure 110. In an embodiment, the active region 108 may have a multiple quantum well (MQW) structure formed of semiconductor material. The active region 108 may include suitable luminous materials. For example, different materials may be chosen according to the needs of a laser device. For example, in an embodiment that the laser device emits an infrared light with a wavelength greater than 800 nm (such as 850 nm or 940 nm), the material of the active region 108 may include aluminum (Al), gallium (Ga), arsenic (As), phosphorous (P), indium (In), and/or a combination thereof. The abovementioned embodiments are for illustrative purpose only, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.
In some embodiments, the stack of epitaxial layers 104 including the first reflective structure 106, the active region 108, and the second reflective structure 110 may be formed by epitaxial growth processes, such as metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HYPE), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE), vapor phase epitaxy (VPE), or a combination thereof. In an embodiment, the first reflective structure 106, the active region 108, and the second reflective structure 110 are formed by the metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD).
In some embodiments, the doping of the first reflective structure 106 and the second reflective structure 110 may be performed by in-situ doping during the epitaxial growth, and/or implantation using dopants after the epitaxial growth. The first reflective structure 106 may include a first dopant to have a first conductive type, while the second reflective structure 110 may include a second dopant to have a second conductive type. The first reflective structure 106 and the second reflective structure 110 have different conductive types, that is to say, the first conductive type and the second conductive type are different. For example, the first conductive type is p-type and the second conductive type is n-type to provide electron holes and electrons respectively; or, the first conductive type is n-type and the second conductive type is p-type to provide electrons and electron holes respectively. In an embodiment, the first dopant or the second dopant may be: magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn), silicon (Si), carbon (C), or tellurium (Te). In an embodiment, the first reflective structure 106 is n-type and the first dopant is silicon, and the second reflective structure 110 is p-type and the second dopant is carbon.
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In some embodiments, the material of the first electrode 116T and the second electrode 116B may be the same or different, and may respectively include metal oxide materials, metals or alloys. The metal oxide material may include indium tin oxide (ITO), indium oxide (InO), tin oxide (SnO), cadmium tin oxide (CTO), antimony tin oxide (ATO), aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), zinc tin oxide (ZTO), gallium zinc oxide (GZO), indium tungsten oxide (IWO), zinc oxide (ZnO), or indium zinc oxide (IZO). The metal may include germanium (Ge), beryllium (Be), zinc (Zn), gold (Au), platinum (Pt), titanium (Ti), aluminum (Al), nickel (Ni), or copper (Cu). The alloy may include at least two metals selected from the abovementioned metals, for example, germanium-gold-nickel (GeAuNi), beryllium-gold (BeAu), germanium-gold (GeAu), or zinc-gold (ZnAu). The first electrode 116T and/or the second electrode 116B may be formed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), evaporation deposition, sputter deposition, or other suitable deposition process.
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In an embodiment, the material of the current conductive region 118o may include AlxGa1-xAs, wherein 0.7≤x<0.98. The material of the current confinement region 118C is oxide corresponding to the material of the current conductive region 118o, such as AlxOy. The width of the current confinement region 118C of the current confinement structure 118 may be adjusted by appropriately controlling the oxidation rate and the oxidation processing time, so that the width of the current conductive region 118o may be also adjusted. Compared to the embodiment of
In some embodiments, the bonding layer 103 and the second conductive layer 115 may be assembled to act as an omni-directional reflector (ODR). The ODR is able to reflect the light emitted from the active region 108 and increase the external quantum efficiency (EQE). In some embodiments, the bonding layer 103 may facilitate the heat dissipation of the laser device 100. The bonding layer 103 may have a single layer or multi-layers structure and may include metal, such as Ag, Au, Ni, Cr, Pt, Pd, Rh, Cu, W, In, Pd, Zn, Ge, Bi, Al, or a combination thereof. The second conductive layer 115 may include a metal oxide material. The metal oxide material includes indium tin oxide (ITO), indium oxide (InO), tin oxide (SnO), cadmium tin oxide (CTO), antimony tin oxide (ATO), aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), zinc tin oxide (ZTO), gallium zinc oxide (GZO), indium tungsten oxide (IWO), zinc oxide (ZnO), or indium zinc oxide (IZO).
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The material of the substrate 102 may include a conductive material, such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), silicon carbide (SiC), gallium phosphide (GaP), gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP), zinc oxide (ZnO), zinc selenide (ZnSe), gallium nitride (GaN), lithium gallate (LiGaO2), lithium aluminate (LiAlO2), germanium (Ge), or silicon (Si). In some embodiments, when the substrate 102 is provided for growing the stack of epitaxial layers 104, a single crystal material that lattice matches or closely lattice match to the stack of epitaxial layers 104 may be selected as the material of the substrate 102.
Accordingly, the structures of laser devices having an intermediate layer and a conductive layer are generally described by the present disclosure, wherein the conductive layers may be disposed above and/or below the current confinement layer of the laser device. For example, a conductive layer may be formed above and/or below the opening of the current confinement layer according to the design requirements of the vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), and the current confinement layer can locate above and/or below the active region.
According to the design requirements of the laser device, the current concentrated at the edge of the opening of the current confinement layer may be reduce by deposing the intermediate layer and/or the conductive layer, thereby improving the quality of the laser device. For example, the conductive layer may be formed above the opening of the intermediate layer in the embodiment that the intermediate layer act as a current-confining layer. The current confinement structure may be formed in the stack of epitaxial layers to increase the function of current confinement in some embodiments. Besides, in the embodiment with the current confinement structure, the intermediate layer may include metal to further reduce the current concentrating at the opening edge of the current confinement structure. In some embodiments, the conductive layer may be formed below the current confinement structure to reduce the current concentrating at the opening edge of the current confinement structure. Besides, in some embodiments, the bonding layer to connect the substrate and the conductive layer. In some embodiments, the insulating layer having an opening may be formed on the conductive layer to further increase the current-confining-function. In addition, in some embodiments, the conductive layers may be formed above and below the current confinement structure respectively, in order to further reduce the current concentrating at the opening edge of the current confinement structure.
It should be appreciated that the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the technical solution of specific combination of the abovementioned technical features shown in the drawings, but also covers other technical solutions of any combinations of the abovementioned technical features or the equivalents. The embodiments described above may be arbitrarily combined to form new embodiments, and all the new embodiments formed by the combinations are within the protection scope of the present disclosure.
Although some embodiments of the present disclosure and advantages thereof have been described, it should be appreciated that those skilled in the art can make changes, substitutions and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. For example, those skilled in the art may readily understand that many of the components, functions, processes, and materials described herein may be changed without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the protection scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the process, machine, manufacture, material composition, method and steps in the specific embodiments described herein. It should be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that the current or future developed processes, machines, manufactures, material compositions, devices, methods and steps can be used in accordance with the present application as long as they can perform substantially the same functions or obtain substantially the same results in the embodiments described herein. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application includes the abovementioned process, machine, manufacture, material compositions, device, method and steps.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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111210218 | Sep 2022 | TW | national |