An embodiment semiconductor optical device includes an optical waveguide including a core, and an active layer extending in the waveguide direction of the optical waveguide for a predetermined distance and arranged in a state in which the active layer can be optically coupled to the core. The core and the active layer are arranged in contact with each other. The core is formed of a material with a refractive index of about 1.5 to 2.2, such as SiN, for example. In addition, the core is formed to a thickness at which a higher-order mode appears. The higher-order mode is an E.sub.12 mode, for example.

A spectroscopic laser sensor based on hybrid III-V/IV system-on-a-chip technology. The laser sensor is configured to either (i) be used with a fiber-optic probe connected to an intravenous/intra-arterial optical catheter for direct invasive blood analyte concentration level measurement or (ii) be used to measure blood analyte concentration level non-invasively through an optical interface attached, e.g., to the skin or fingernail bed of a human. The sensor includes a III-V gain-chip, e.g., an AlGaInAsSb/GaSb based gain-chip, and a photonic integrated circuit, with laser wavelength filtering, laser wavelength tuning, laser wavelength monitoring, laser signal monitoring and signal output sections realized on a chip by combining IV-based semiconductor substrates and flip-chip AlGa1-nAsSb/GaSb based photodetectors and embedded electronics for signal processing. Embodiments of the invention may be applied for real-time monitoring of critical blood analyte concentration levels such as lactates, urea, glucose, ammonia, albumin, etc.

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

An optoelectronic device grown on a miscut of GaN, wherein the miscut comprises a semi-polar GaN crystal plane (of the GaN) miscut x degrees from an m-plane of the GaN and in a c-direction of the GaN, where −15<x<−1 and 1<x<15 degrees.

The invention relates to a method for generating a laser pulse, wherein during the method a first semi-conductor laser in the form of a broadband laser diode is used to generate a pump laser pulse, the pump laser pulse is used to pump a second semi-conductor laser, the laser pulse being shorter than the pump laser pulse and the second semi-conductor laser comprising at least 20 quantum wells arranged above one another in the emission direction of the laser pulse.

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device on a semiconductor substrate, wherein the semiconductor device is adapted to provide target lasing properties, the method includes creating, a mask layer over the semiconductor substrate, the mask layer having at least one opening to expose a region of the semiconductor substrate, etching using a first etching process the exposed region, utilizing inductively coupled plasma with preselected first set of parameters to obtain a baseline mesa profile, the baseline mesa profile having a baseline mesa angle, re-etching using a second etching process the etched region, utilizing inductively coupled plasma with preselected second set of parameters, to alter the baseline mesa profile to obtain a requisite mesa profile having a requisite mesa angle defined by the target lasing properties and the requisite mesa angle being different from the baseline mesa angle, removing the mask layer and defining a p-n junction for the semiconductor substrate.

A semiconductor optical device includes a substrate of a first conductivity type; an optical confinement layer of the first conductivity type, which is arranged above the substrate of the first conductivity type; a multi quantum well layer, which is arranged above the optical confinement layer of the first conductivity type, and comprises a plurality of well layers and a plurality of barrier layers; an optical confinement layer of a second conductivity type, which is arranged on the multi quantum well layer; and a PL stabilization layer, which is arranged between the substrate of the first conductivity type and the multi quantum well layer. The PL stabilization layer having a thickness that is half a thickness of the multi quantum well layer or more, and having a composition wavelength that is shorter than a composition wavelength of the plurality of well layers of the multi quantum well layer.

A surface emission laser formed of a group III nitride semiconductor includes a first conductivity type first clad layer; a first conductivity type first guide layer on the first clad layer; a light-emitting layer on the first guide layer; a second guide layer on the light-emitting layer; and a second conductivity type second clad layer on the second guide layer. The first or second guide layer internally includes voids periodically arranged at square lattice positions with two axes perpendicular to one another as arrangement directions in a surface parallel to the guide layer. The voids have a polygonal prism structure or an oval columnar structure with a long axis and a short axis perpendicular to the long axis in the parallel surface, and the long axis is inclined with respect to one axis among the arrangement directions of the voids.

A QCL may include a substrate, an emitting facet, and semiconductor layers adjacent the substrate and defining an active region. The active region may have a longitudinal axis canted at an oblique angle to the emitting facet of the substrate. The QCL may include an optical grating being adjacent the active region and configured to emit one of a CW laser output or a pulsed laser output through the emitting facet of substrate.

Some embodiments may include a laser diode having a strain-engineered cladding layer for optimized active region strain and improved laser diode performance. In one embodiment, the laser diode may include a semiconductor substrate having a material composition with a first lattice constant; and a plurality of epitaxy layers form on the semiconductor substrate, with plurality of epitaxy layers including a waveguide layer and cladding layers, wherein the waveguide layer includes an active region having a material composition associated with a target optical wavelength, wherein a second lattice constant of the material composition of the active region is different than the first lattice constant; wherein a material composition and/or thickness of an individual cladding layer of the cladding layers is/are arranged to impart a target stress field on the active region to optimize active region strain. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.