Analysis of lateral-mode behavior in broad-area InGaN quantum-well lasers

A wave-optical model that is coupled to a microscopic gain theory is used to investigate lateral mode behavior in group-III nitride quantum-well lasers. Beam filamentation due to self-focusing in the gain medium is found to limit fundamental-mode output to narrow stripe lasers or to operation close to lasing threshold. Differences between nitride and conventional near-infrared semiconductor lasers arise because of band structure differences, in particular, the presence of a strong quantum-confined Stark effect in the former. Increasing mirror reflectivities in plane-plane resonators to reduce lasing threshold current tends to exacerbate the filamentation problem. On the other hand, a negative-branch unstable resonator is found to mitigate filament effects, enabling fundamental-mode operation far above threshold in broad-area lasers.