Semiconductor Laser Diode Technology and Applications

"Lasers are the stuff of science fiction: big, heavy boxes that make blazing blasts of light. If you've ever seen an ordinary laser in a laboratory, you'll know it's quite a hefty beast: typically about as long as your forearm, fairly heavy, quite hot, and capable of producing a very intense beam of light. But if lasers are that big, how come we can use them in small things like portable CD players and handheld barcode scanners? These things use a very different kind of laser that's about the same size as (and works in a similar way to) an ordinary LED; known as semiconductor lasers or laser diode. A laser diode, or LD also known as injection laser diode or ILD, is an electrically pumped semiconductor laser in which the active laser medium is formed by a p-n junction of a semiconductor diode similar to that found in a light-emitting diode. The laser diode is the most common type of laser produced with a wide range of uses that include fiber optic communications, barcode readers, laser pointers, CD/DVD/Blu-ray Disc reading and recording, laser printing, laser scanning and increasingly directional lighting sources. Semiconductor Laser Diode Technology and Applications signifies the latest developments in the rapidly developing world of semiconductor laser diode technology and applications. Semiconductor lasers or laser diodes play an important part in our everyday lives by providing cheap and compact-size lasers. They consist of complex multi-layer structures requiring nanometer scale accuracy and an elaborate design. Their theoretical description is important not only from a fundamental point of view, but also in order to generate new and improved designs. This book will be of considerable interest to engineers, scientists, technologists and physicists working in research and development in the field of semiconductor laser diode, as well as to young researchers who are at the beginning of their career."