Abstract: To meet the demand for ultra-precision manufacturing of the cleavage cavity surface of GaAs based semiconductor lasers, the molecular dynamics simulation and experimental investigation of mechanical cleavage of GaAs are carried out. First, molecular dynamics simulations of scratching on GaAs are conducted to investigate the influence of crystal anisotropy on the surface and subsurface deformation mechanism. Then, a series of verification experiments are carried out. The cleavage plane morphologies are also analyzed. Compared with the [100] direction, the maximum damage width, scratching width and subsurface depth of [110] direction is decreased 5.23 %, 3.98 %, 2.61 % respectively. as the scratching depth increased. A better scratching quality of the GaAs surface can be obtained in the scratches along the [110] direction. In addition, the maximum damage width, scratching width and subsurface depth is increased as the scratching depth increased. The surface and subsurface morphology of GaAs is not significantly affected by scratching speed. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results. For GaAs, the [110] direction is the best cleavage direction.

Key words: semiconductor laser, cavity mirror, cleavage, anisotropy, molecular dynamics