In his recent article, Professor Richard Hogg, Chief Technical Officer at III-V Epi, explains epitaxial regrowth and how GaAs is the key to unlocking new, semiconductor laser markets. First, he looks at the relatively mature, epitaxial regrowth process for indium phosphide (InP) lasers, commonly used in 5G, datacoms, telecoms and co-located optics applications. Richard then considers gallium arsenide (GaAs), a less mature material system, which suits a multitude of emerging, laser applications in industrial, biomedical imaging, datacomms, and sensing.
Epitaxial regrowth better meets the need for greater heat dissipation; reduced optical loss; and the ever-increasing demand for photonics integration. It also brings the next-generation, device performance necessary for semiconductor lasers of the future.