RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Nanoscale effects on the thermal and mechanical properties of AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well laser diodes: influence on the catastrophic optical damage A1 Souto Bartolomé, Jorge Manuel A1 Pura Ruiz, José Luis A1 Jiménez López, Juan Ignacio K1 high power laser diode, catastrophic optical damage, thermal conductivity, mechanical strengthening, nanoscale effects, finite element methods AB In this work we study the catastrophic optical damage (COD) of graded-index separateconfinement heterostructure quantum well (QW) laser diodes based on AlGaAs/GaAs.The emphasis is placed on the impact that the nanoscale physical properties have on theoperation and degradation of the active layers of these devices. When these laser diodes runin continuous-wave mode with high internal optical power densities, the QW and guide layerscan experiment very intense local heating phenomena that lead to device failure. A thermomechanical model has been set up to study the mechanism of degradation. This model has been solved by applying finite element methods. A variety of physical factors related to the materials properties, which play a paramount role in the laser degradation process, have been considered. Among these, the reduced thicknesses of the QW and the guides lead to thermal conductivities smaller than the bulk figures, which are further reduced as extended defects develop in these layers. This results in a progressively deteriorating thermal management in the device. To the best of our knowledge, this model for laser diodes is the first one to have taken into account low scale mechanical effects that result in enhanced strengths in the structural layers. Moreover, the consequences of these conflicting size-dependent properties on the thermo-mechanical behaviour on the route to COD are examined. Subsequently, this approach opens the possibility of taking advantage of these properties in order to design robust diode lasers (or other types of power devices) in a controlled manner. PB Institute of Physics Publishing SN 0022-3727 YR 2017 FD 2017 LK http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/25374 UL http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/25374 LA eng NO Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2017, Volume 50, Number 23 NO Producción Científica DS UVaDOC RD 22-nov-2024