MQW laser structure comprising plural MQW regions

1. A multi-quantum well laser diode comprising a laser substrate, a semiconductor active region, a waveguide region, and a cladding region, wherein:

the active region comprises at least one active MQW region and at least one passive MQW region;

the active MQW region is configured for electrically-pumped stimulated emission of photons;

the passive MQW region is optically transparent at the lasing photon energy of the active MQW region;

each of the MQW regions comprises a plurality of quantum wells and intervening barrier layers of barrier layer thickness a;

each of the MQW regions is positioned in a plane that is displaced from and parallel to planes of adjacent MQW regions;

adjacent MQW regions are separated by a spacer layer of spacer thickness b;

the spacer thickness b is larger than the barrier layer thickness a;

the bandgap of the quantum wells is lower than the bandgap of the intervening barrier layers and the spacer layer; and

the respective active, waveguide, and cladding regions are formed as a multi-layered diode over the laser substrate such that the waveguide region guides the stimulated emission of photons from the active region, and the cladding region promotes propagation of the emitted photos in the waveguide region.

2. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

the laser diode further comprises an electron stop layer interposed between the active MQW region and the passive MQW region; and

the electron stop layer is in the spacer layer, between the spacer layer and the active MQW region, or between the spacer layer and the passive MQW region.

3. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 1 wherein the optical transition energy of the passive MQW regions is higher than the lasing photon energy of the active MQW regions.

4. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 1 wherein lasing photon energy of the active MQW region will be approximately 50 meV to approximately 400 meV lower than the optical transition energy of the passive MQW regions.

5. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 1 wherein the quantum wells comprise InGaN quantum wells, AlGaN quantum wells, AlGaAs quantum wells, AlGaAsP quantum wells, GaAs quantum wells, InGaAs quantum wells and combinations thereof.

6. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

the active MQW regions comprise InGaN quantum wells with an In mole fraction between approximately 10% and approximately 50%; and

the passive MQW regions comprise InGaN quantum wells with an In mole fraction between approximately 5% and approximately 30%.

7. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 6 wherein:

the intervening barrier layers comprise GaN or InGaN barrier layers with an In mole fraction between approximately 0% and approximately 10%; and

the spacer layer comprises a GaN or InGaN spacer layer with a In mole fraction between approximately 0% and approximately 10%.

8. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 1 wherein :

the waveguide region comprises P-doped and N-doped layers disposed on opposite sides of the active region; and

the cladding region comprises P-doped and N-doped layers disposed on opposite sides of the active region.

9. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

the active MQW is disposed between a p-doped side of the laser diode and an n-doped side of the laser diode;

spacer layers on the n-doped side of the laser diode are fully or partially n-doped;

spacer layers on the p-doped side of the laser structure are fully or partially p-doped;

the intervening barrier layers between quantum wells on the n-doped side of the laser diode are n-doped; and

the intervening barrier layers between quantum wells on the p-doped side of the laser diode are p-doped.

10. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 9 wherein:

the laser diode further comprises an electron stop layer in the spacer layer interposed between the active MQW region and the passive MQW region;

the portion of the spacer layer between the electron stop layer and the passive MQW region is p-doped while the portion of the spacer layer between the electron stop layer and the active MQW region is undoped.

11. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 1 wherein the nitride spacer layer is sufficiently thick to at least partially mitigate strain accumulation across the MQW regions or at least partially recover the surface morphology.

12. A multi-quantum well laser diode as claimed in claim 1 wherein the active MQW region is configured for lasing wavelength more than approximately 450 nm.