of the fundamental lateral mode energy and 30 6 of the next higher order lateral mode overlap the suppression layer 135a 135b thus loss introduced by the layer is approximately 1 cm as compared to 20 cm loss that is typical for the resonator design on the absence of the kink suppression layer the next higher lateral mode is expected to experience an additional loss of 6 cm due to the layer these values were used in the design of the present implementation but are subject to some uncertainties fig3 6 illustrate a process for forming a semiconductor laser device according to the principles of the present invention fig3 is a cross section of the partially completed laser device the linearly graded index cladding layers 105 110 formed on the substrate 100 sandwich the sqw active layer 115 in the preferred embodiment the layers 105 110 are successively formed using metal beam epitaxy mbe although other processes such as mocvd and cbe may be used a photoresist strip 310 is then deposited on the upper cladding layer 105 over the region in which the ridge is to be formed methods for forming this photoresist layer 310 are well known it typically comprises depositing a complete layer of photoresist over the entire top surface of the cladding layer followed by exposure and development fig4 shows the results of an etch of the upper cladding layer 105 using the photoresist layer 310 as an etch protecting layer.