Abstract

The failures of semiconductor lasers are often linked to the emergence or growth of defects. However, most research mainly focuses on the postmortem failure analysis caused by defects, lacking dynamic process analysis of defect expansion. This limitation hinders the understanding of defect growth patterns and expansion. In this work, we establish a macroscopic phenomenological model based on the dynamic characteristics of defects in semiconductor lasers. The expansion of defects is regarded as the diffusion transfer process of lattice strain, and the diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) model is used to describe the aggregation process of random morphology of defects. The effect of model parameters on the growth pattern is studied, and the phenomenological relation between model parameters and actual defect features is established. The model successfully replicated experimentally observed morphologies in a distributed feedback (DFB) laser under high-temperature and high-current excitation. It not only predicts the intermediate process of defect expansion but also reveals the accelerated process. This research provides a novel approach to describing the defect evolution process in semiconductor lasers, contributing to a deeper understanding of defect expansion modes and characteristics within semiconductor lasers. It holds significant guiding implications for improving device reliability.

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