InGaN laser diode degradation

Abstract

We discuss the current knowledge of degradation processes in InGaN laser diodes. It is quite surprising that after quite a few years of intensive studies, there is still no clear picture of physical mechanisms lying behind these aging processes. First of all, in contrast to GaAs counterparts, the nitride laser degradation seems to be independent from extended defects movement and multiplication, is uniform across the device surface, and is rather unrelated with optical phenomena. Involvement of point defects in this process is very tempting but not yet sufficiently experimentally supported hypothesis. Bipolar GaN devices will very likely teach us new things about the physics and technology of wideband gap devices - a truly new thing in the optoelectronics.