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A measurement technique, i.e. reflectance anisotropy/difference spectroscopy (RAS/RDS), which had originally been developed for in-situ
epitaxial growth control, is employed here for in-situ real-time etch-depth control during reactive ion etching (RIE) of cubic crystalline III/V
semiconductor samples. Temporal optical Fabry-Perot oscillations of the genuine RAS signal (or of the average reflectivity) during etching due
to the ever shrinking layer thicknesses are used to monitor the current etch depth. This way the achievable in-situ etch-depth resolution has
been around 15 nm. To improve etch-depth control even further, i.e. down to below 5 nm, we now use the optical equivalent of a mechanical
vernier scale– by employing Fabry-Perot oscillations at two different wavelengths or photon energies of the RAS measurement light – 5%
apart, which gives a vernier scale resolution of 5%. For the AlGaAs(Sb) material system a 5 nm resolution is an improvement by a factor of 3
and amounts to a precision in in-situ etch-depth control of around 8 lattice constants.
Previously in this journal we have reported on fundamental transversemode selection (TMS#0) of broad area semiconductor lasers
(BALs) with integrated twice-retracted 4f set-up and film-waveguide lens as the Fourier-transform element. Now we choose and
report on a simpler approach for BAL-TMS#0, i.e., the use of a stable confocal longitudinal BAL resonator of length L with a
transverse constriction.The absolute value of the radius R of curvature of both mirror-facets convex in one dimension (1D) is R = L
= 2f with focal length f.The round trip length 2L = 4f againmakes up for a Fourier-optical 4f set-up and the constriction resulting
in a resonator-internal beam waist stands for a Fourier-optical low-pass spatial frequency filter. Good TMS#0 is achieved, as long
as the constriction is tight enough, but filamentation is not completely suppressed.
1. Introduction
Broad area (semiconductor diode) lasers (BALs) are intended
to emit high optical output powers (where “high” is relative
and depending on the material system). As compared to
conventional narrow stripe lasers, the higher power is distributed
over a larger transverse cross-section, thus avoiding
catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD). Typical BALs
have emitter widths of around 100 ????m.
Thedrawback is the distribution of the high output power
over a large number of transverse modes (in cases without
countermeasures) limiting the portion of the light power in
the fundamental transverse mode (mode #0), which ought to
be maximized for the sake of good light focusability.
Thus techniques have to be used to support, prefer, or
select the fundamental transverse mode (transverse mode
selection TMS#0) by suppression of higher order modes
already upon build-up of the laser oscillation.
In many cases reported in the literature, either a BAL
facet, the