Growth of large platy InGaAs crystals and fabrication of semiconductor laser diodes

We have succeeded in increasing size of InxGa1−xAs (x: 0.1–0.13) platy single crystals to 30 ×30 mm2 in surface area for mass production of laser diodes. Key points are to suppress convection in a melt and to keep constant temperature gradient for obtaining homogeneous crystals. Grown crystals have enough quality as substrates for 1.3 μm laser diodes. Fabricated laser diodes on these substrates were evaluated by measuring lasing characteristics at various temperatures and by measuring bit error rate for transmission through a single mode fiber up to 20 km. Lasers showed high temperature stability and error free transmission and showed the merit of ternary substrates.