Pros and cons of green InGaN laser on c-plane GaN

The challenges of green InGaN lasers are discussed concerning material quality as a function of InGaN composition, quantum well design and piezoelectrical fields. Investigations of polar quantum well designs and comparison with simulated non-polar structures demonstrate that the quality of the indium rich layers is more important than the influence of interface charges. A high risk of dark spots at high In concentrations of 26–33% is observed. Small changes of about 2% of In significant reduce or increase the quantity and size of dark luminescence areas. Polar designs are a trade-off between low indium concentrations of 4 nm wide quantum wells and high overlap of electrons and holes in 2 nm narrow designs. Furthermore, our single quantum wells have less non-radiative defects than indium rich multi-quantum well structures. Optimized active layer designs and the material qualities enable us to get green InGaN lasers on c-plane substrates for cw operation at 515–524 nm and wall plug efficiencies of 3.9–2.3%. Slope efficiency of 0.3–0.4 W/A allows up to now highest optical output power of 50 mW.