Injection lasers with lateral spatial thickness variations (LSTV) in the active layer

Claim 1

In an injection laser comprising a plurality of contiguous layers of semiconductor material, one of said layers fabricated to form an active layer for optical wave propagation under lasing conditions, a cladding layer contiguous with each surface of said active layer and each having a higher bandgap and a lower refractive index than said active layer, said active layer having an active region with a lateral spatial variation in thickness extending from a central point of maximum thickness to adjacent points of minimum thickness, the improvement comprising. means in said cladding layers to produce a quantitative difference in their relative refractive indices and the lateral spatial variation of the thickness of said region governed by the ratio of the difference between said maximum and minimum thicknesses relative to said maximum thicknesses in conjunction with the rapidity from said maximum thickness to said minimum thickness being in the range of 0.01 to 0.05.