Passivation for surfaces and interfaces of semiconductor laser facets or the like

摘要

A passivating layer is deposited on the facet of a light emitting device comprising a thin layer of a reactive material. The thickness of the passivating layer is sufficiently thick to react with an optimum amount of contaminants on the facet but is sufficiently thin so as to be consumed in the gettering process and render the layer electrically nonconductive, if initially conductive in nature. The reactive material may be selected from the group consisting of Al,Si,Ta,V, Sb,Mn,Cr and Ti. Al has been found to be particularly good as a passivating layer with a preferred thickness for the layer being in the range of about 20Å to 75Å, depending upon whether the layer is for purposes of surface passivation or interface passivation.