Stripe-geometry lasers and their properties

Design types of the stripe-geometry heterojunction laser are reviewed. Various methods for providing an electrical confinement, and/or optical confinement, are explained. The strong lateral confinement is shown to be important to stabilize the lasing filament in the cavity. Planar stripe-geometry lasers (without strong lateral optical confinement) have sometimes anomalous light output characteristics, containing kinks, discontinuities, or hysteresis loops. These irregularities are discussed in terms of optical nonlinear (self-focusing) mechanism. Problems of the electrical characterization of the continuously operating stripe-geometry lasers are considered.The author sincerely thanks his colleagues M. Osinski, A. P. Bogatov, O. G. Okhotnikov, G. T. Pak and G. G. Kharisov for their cooperation.