Phys. Status Solidi C 7, No. 7–8, 1925–1927 (2010) / DOI 10.1002/pssc.

200983646

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current topics in solid state physics

Optical anisotropy in semipolar

(Al,In)GaN laser waveguides
W. Scheibenzuber*,1 , U. Schwarz1 , R. Veprek2 , B. Witzigmann2 , and A. Hangleiter3
1
Institute for Experimental and Applied Physics, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany
2
Integrated Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Gloriastrasse 35, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
3
Institute of Applied Physics, University of Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstraße 2, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany

Received 16 October 2009, revised 10 November 2009, accepted 27 November 2009

Published online 9 June 2010

Keywords (Al, In)GaN, laser, waveguides, optical properties

∗
Corresponding author: e-mail ulrich.schwarz@physik.uni-regensburg.de

In this work, the optical eigenmodes of a semipolar
(Al,In)GaN laser diode are calculated. A full vectorial
one-dimensional 4×4 transfer matrix method is used to
correctly incorporate the influence of birefringence of
the wurtzite crystal. Depending on the orientation of the
laser waveguide relative to the c-axis, the eigenmodes
show TE/TM- or extraordinary/ordinary polarization.
The polarization direction of the eigenmodes is crucial
for the performance of the laser, as it determines the rel-
evant interband matrix elements for the optical gain.

© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

1 Introduction (Al,In)GaN Laser diodes grown on semipolar crystal plane, (202̄1)-plane shows good indium
free-standing c-plane GaN substrates have been demon- incorporation even at high indium contents , which are nec-
strated at wavelengths up to 515 nm [1, 2] with high exter- essary for emission in the green spectral range.
nal efficiencies and low threshold current densities. True
green continuous wave laser diodes, which would be suit- a) waveguide
able for applications such as laser projection have not yet z c-axis
been realized, as an increase of the In-content in the ac- z
c q
tive layers leads to inhomogeneous broadening due to spa-
tial potential fluctuations and an increase of the piezoelec-
x
tric polarization in the quantum wells. The polarization
discontinuities at the layer borders generate strong inter- y || c‘
nal electric fields that cause the quantum confined Stark
effect (QCSE), reducing the overlap of the electron and
b) c-axis
hole wave functions and thus the optical matrix elements. z
One possibility to reduce this effect [3] is to grow the z
q
laser diode on a different crystal plane than the commonly x || c‘ c
used c-plane. Optically pumped LED and laser structures
on semipolar [4–6] and nonpolar [7, 8] planes and even wave-
a pulsed laser at 531 nm [9] on the semipolar (202̄1)- guide
y
plane have been demonstrated by various groups. Although
nonpolar structures have the highest carrier wave function
overlaps due to vanishing internal fields, they might not
be good candidates for green lasers as there are problems Figure 1 Waveguide geometries and crystal orientations of two
with indium incorporation on nonpolar crystal planes [10]. possible realizations of a laser structure on the (202̄1)-plane (in-
On the other hand it is reported in Ref. [9] that a specific dicated as a blue rectangle on the crystal images). (a) waveguide
along [1̄1̄02], (b) waveguide along [11̄00].

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1926 W. Scheibenzuber et al.: Optical anisotropy in semipolar (Al,In)GaN laser waveguides

layer material d [nm] no ne

cladding Al0.05 Ga0.95 N 600 2.381 2.417
waveguide GaN 70 2.408 2.435
EBL Al0.2 Ga0.8 N 10 2.305 2.339
spacer GaN 20 2.408 2.435
3× QW In0.4 Ga0.6 N 3 2.724 2.784
3× barrier GaN 7 2.408 2.435 Figure 2 Electric field components of the TE-mode of the
waveguide GaN 100 2.408 2.435 semipolar waveguide parallel to c as function of z. The gray
cladding Al0.05 Ga0.95 N 1600 2.381 2.417 lines indicate the ordinary refractive index profile. The Ey and
Ez -components are zero.
Table 1 Materials, layer thickness d and refractive indices at a
wavelength of λ = 531 nm of the simulated laser diode.

is treated as one layer with an averaged refractive index.

2 Simulation method AlN,InN,GaN and their
ternary alloys show uniaxial birefringence with Δn =
ne − no ≈ 0.011no [11], with the extraordinary direc-
tion pointing along the c-axis of the wurtzite crystal. In a
semipolar laser diode, the c-axis is not perpendicular to the
growth plane, so the influence of birefringence in such a
structure has to be considered. We show in this work how
birefringence affects the optical eigenmodes of a semipolar
waveguide on the example of the (202̄1)-plane. In general,
one has to distinguish two possible waveguide orienta-
tions in semipolar laser diodes (see Fig. 1). The waveguide
can be oriented either parallel or perpendicular to the c -
direction, the projection of the c-axis on the QW-plane. In
our example, the (202̄1)-plane, these directions are [1̄1̄02]
and [11̄00] direction, respectively. For laser waveguides
parallel to the c -direction the facets do not coincide with
a crystal face, so facets have to be formed by etching [6].
To correctly incorporate the influence of birefringence
in the waveguide calculation, a one-dimensional 4 × 4
transfer matrix method [12] is used. The dielectric tensor
of the structure, which is needed for the simulation, is ob-
tained by rotating the dielectric tensor of a c-plane struc-
ture by the crystal angle θ (75◦ in case of the (202̄1)-plane)
⎛ ⎞
n2o 0 0
⎜ ⎟
ε = U T ⎝ 0 n2o 0 ⎠ U
0 0 n2e
U is a rotation matrix with rotation angle θ and axis x for a
waveguide parallel to c or y for a waveguide perpendicu-
lar to c . For the ordinary refractive indices no , an analytic
model from Ref. [13] is used which includes dependencies
on wavelength and alloy composition. The extraordinary
indices of refraction ne are estimated by using the relative
anisotropy Δn/no of the materials from Refs. [14, 15] for
the alloys.
The results of the simulation for waveguide orientations
parallel and perpendicular to c are shown in Figs. 2,3 and
4,5, respectively. For the waveguide orientation parallel to
c , the optical modes have TE- and TM-polarization, just
like the eigenmodes of a laser waveguide on the c-plane.
That is because the projection of the extraordinary direc-
tion on the plane perpendicular to the photon propagation
direction coincides with the growth direction in a semipo-
lar waveguide parallel to c . The optical anisotropy thus has
the same preferred direction as the transversal refractive in-
dex profile.
On the other hand, if the semipolar waveguide is ori-
ented perpendicular to c , then the polarizations of the
eigenmodes approximately point along the ordinary or ex-
traordinary direction of the crystal in the x-z-plane, so we
name them extraordinary and ordinary mode. In both cases
the Ex - and Ez -components are real valued functions, so
the modes are linearly polarized. Small discontinuities in
the z-component at the borders of the GaN layer lead to a
step in the angle α = arctan(Ex /Ez ). The polarizations
of the modes are nearly aligned to the ordinary or extraor-
dinary direction in the waveguide layer with a maximum
deviation of about 2◦ . Furthermore there is a small longitu-
dinal component Ey which is imaginary. These results are
in excellent agreement with recent polarization measure-
ments on semipolar and nonpolar GaN waveguides [16].
(1) Most important is the polarization angle inside the ac-
tive region, which deviates by some degrees from the crys-

3 Results and discussion We simulate a semipo-
lar laser with an emission wavelength of 531 nm. Its layer
structure is listed in Tab. 1 along with the refractive indices
of the individual layers. In order to reduce the numerical ef-
fort, the active area with three quantum wells and barriers
Figure 3 Electric field components of the TM-mode of the
semipolar waveguide parallel to c as function of z (Ey -
component divided by the complex unit). The gray lines indicate
the extraordinary refractive index profile. The Ex -component is
zero.

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Phys. Status Solidi C 7, No. 7–8 (2010)
Figure 4 Electric field components of the extraordinary mode of
the semipolar waveguide perpendicular to c and angle α as func-
tion of z near the waveguide layer (y-component divided by the
complex unit). The gray lines indicate the extraordinary refractive
index profile and the dashed line in the lower right figure marks
the extraordinary direction.
tal directions, depending on the thicknesses of the layers. It
determines the optical interband matrix elements which en-
ter the optical gain of the laser modes. We have presented
elaborate studies on that topic in Ref. [17].
4 Conclusion In conclusion, we calculate the shapes
and polarizations of the optical eigenmodes of a birefrin-
gent (202̄1) (Al,In)GaN laser waveguide. It is pointed out
that two different waveguide orientations have to be dis-
tinguished in a semipolar laser diode. For an orientation
parallel to the projection of the c-axis on the growth plane,
the modes show TE- and TM-polarization. The perpendic-
ular orientation exhibits eigenmodes with linear polariza-
tion along the extraordinary and ordinary directions of the
Figure 5 Electric field components of the ordinary mode of the
semipolar waveguide perpendicular to c and angle α as function
of z near the waveguide layer (y-component divided by the com-
plex unit). The gray lines indicate the ordinary refractive index
profile and the dashed line in the lower right figure marks the
ordinary direction.
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Contributed
Article
1927
crystal due to the strong relative anisotropy of GaN. These
results are of importance for calculating the optical gain of
the laser modes, as their polarization determines the optical
interband matrix element.
Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge funding
by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the research
group 957, PolarCon.
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