Effect of barrier thickness on the carrier distribution inasymmetric multiple-quantum-well InGaAsP lasers

Four asymmetric multiple-quantum-well (AMQW) laser structures have been grown and tested. The structures were designed to study the effect of the thickness of the barriers on the distribution of carriers amongst the quantum wells by comparing the transition cavity lengths (TCL) of mirror image AMQW lasers. The TCL method provides a quantitative measure of the degree to which the uneven carrier distribution affects the net gain of wells owing to the position of the well in the active region. We experimentally demonstrate that reducing the thickness of the barrier layers from 100 to 50 Å results in a significantly more uniform carrier distribution. The thickness of the barriers is thus shown to be an important design parameter for MQW lasers     

Experimental and theoretical analysis of the carrier distributionin asymmetric multiple quantum-well InGaAsP lasers

The authors present an experimental and theoretical analysis of the carrier distribution in multiple quantum-well (MQW) lasers and the effect of this carrier distribution on the gain of wells at different locations in the active region. An experimental technique using mirror image asymmetric multiple quantum-well (AMQW) lasers is described which provides quantitative information on the degree to which the carrier distribution affects the gain of quantum wells (QWs) in the active region. A gain model for AMQW lasers is developed and used to explain some important characteristics of AMQW devices. A rate equation model is presented which incorporates the effects of fields across the p-i-n junction active region. The model is able to predict experimental results measured from thirteen AMQW laser structures to within experimental uncertainty     

Critical design parameters for engineering broadly tunableasymmetric multiple-quantum-well lasers

Asymmetric multiple-quantum-well (AMQW) lasers are MQW lasers with QW's of varying thickness and/or composition in a single active region. AMQW lasers can, if designed properly, exhibit broad spectral tuning ranges more than twice as large as those of conventional MQW lasers. In the paper, it is shown experimentally and theoretically that AMQW lasers only exhibit broad wavelength tuning ranges near a specific cavity length defined as the transition cavity length. The transition cavity length is a critical design parameter for engineering broadly tunable AMQW Lasers     

Circular beam emission from 1.3 μm InGaAsPstrained-multiquantum-well lasers

The beam divergence in the vertical direction from a graded index separate confinement heterostructure (GRINSCH) multiquantum-well (MQW) laser has been studied. It is demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally that a circular beam MQW laser can be produced by choosing appropriate thicknesses for the GRINSCH layers, while maintaining other desired laser characteristics. The beam divergence is found to be more affected by the index change induced by injected carriers than by strain in the MQW active layer. Theoretical results are in good agreement with the measurements for 1.3-μm InGaAsP strained MQW lasers     

Finite-element modeling of one- and two-dimensional MQWsemiconductor optical waveguides

A finite-element characterization of optical waveguides incorporating multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structures is presented. Optical modeling of a planar MQW region is tested to verify that the quantum-well region can be replaced by a homogeneous region with a suitable effective index. Optical modeling of a semiconductor laser incorporating MQW regions with two-transverse-dimensional confinement is then used to identify the range of single-lateral-mode operation. The effective index, the power fraction in the active region, and the spot size dependence on the total optical power for the case of a self-defocusing MQW region are also presented     

Design and performance of asymmetric waveguide nitride laser diodes

We describe the design and performance characteristics of an asymmetric waveguide nitride laser diode structure, in which the p-cladding layer is placed immediately over the multiple-quantum-well (MQW) active region. Its close proximity to the active region enables it to serve not only as a cladding layer, but also as a potential barrier that confines injected electrons. This structure represents a departure from conventional nitride laser diode structures, where electron confinement is provided by a separate high-aluminum-content AlGaN tunnel barrier layer placed over the MQW active region. The optical confinement factor (Γ) remains: comparable to that of the conventional structure, in spite of the QW's displacement from the center of the waveguide. Room-temperature CW operation was achieved with this structure     

Transient negative photocurrent and out-of-well dipole kinetics in novel piezoelectric InGaAs/GaAs MQW pin diodes

In 111B InGaAs/GaAs pin structures with a multiple quantum well (MQW) embedded region, the average internal field in the active MQW region can be tailored to obtain device configurations with a negative average field (NAF), opposite to the built-in field. In 111 NAF diodes, carriers photogenerated at the wells become trapped early at the potential minima located at the ends of the active region thus creating an electric dipole. In this work, in 111 NAF devices with a 0.17 In mole fraction layers, by using time-resolved photocurrent and a novel optical-pump electrical-probe techniques, we report the presence of a negative transient photocurrent, a direct quantitative evidence of such dipole formation, and we present measurements of its extinction kinetics at room temperature.     

Novel design of AlGaInAs-InP lasers operating at 1.3 μm

A novel design of AlGaInAs-InP lasers operating at 1.3 μm is proposed. A distinctive attribute of the proposed design is that the AlInGaAs active region is surrounded by an AlInAs electron stopper layer on the p-side and an InP hole stopper layer on the n-side. The stopper layers do not impede the carrier injection into the active region and at the same time reduce the thermionic emission of carriers out of the active region. Utilization of stopper layers allows one to increase the value of internal quantum efficiency and to select the waveguide material corresponding to the optimum optical confinement factor value     

Static and dynamic response of multiple-quantum-wellvoltage-controlled bistable laser diodes

We have simulated the static and dynamic characteristics of voltage-controlled multiple-quantum-well (MQW) bistable laser diodes. To investigate the time response of the saturable absorber under applied electric field, we performed pump-probe measurements with picosecond resolution. The obtained differential transmission signals indicate the reduction of the carrier escape time for the saturable absorber with increasing applied electric field. The field screening effect caused by spatial change of the carrier distribution is an important factor, as is phase space filling due to the photogenerated carriers. On the basis of the time response measurements, we have designed an MQW bistable laser by solving the modified rate equation including the recovery time response of the absorption saturation, A saturable absorption region narrower than 10 μm is suitable for obtaining a low threshold device. To achieve low switching power and high switching speed, it is important to optimize the bias conditions and the MQW structures. We can expect a turn-off time of less than 10 ps, and a repetition rate of over 5 GHz from the calculations     

Influence of Zn doping profiles on excitation dependence of photoluminescence intensity in InGaAsP heterostructures

It is known that the Zn doping profile in strained multi-quantum-well (MQW) InGaAsP lasers strongly affects the electro-optical characteristics of these devices and their temperature sensitivity. A systematic investigation of the excitation dependence of the active layer photoluminescence (PL) intensity from compressively strained InGaAsP MQW pin laser material with different Zn doping profiles is described. When the pn junction lies within the active region, the excitation dependence of the PL intensity is superlinear at low excitation and linear at higher excitation. As the Zn profile is set back from the heterointerface creating a displaced pn junction from the active region, the excitation dependence is superlinear and linear at 300 K but becomes linear for all excitation powers at 77 K. The implications of these observations are discussed.     

1.3-μm AlGaInAs-AlGaInAs strained multiple-quantum-well laserswith a p-AlInAs electron stopper layer

1.3-μm AlGaInAs-AlGaInAs strained multiple-quantum-well (MQW) lasers with a p-AlInAs electron stopper layer have been fabricated. The electron stopper layer was inserted between the MQW and p-side separate confinement heterostructure (SCH) layers to suppress the electron overflow from the MQW to p-SCH. The characteristic temperatures of the threshold currents and slope efficiencies were improved in the lasers with the stopper layers, especially at higher temperatures. As a result, a maximum operating temperature of 155°C was achieved, which was 20°C higher than that without the stopper layer     

Tensile-strained multiple quantum-well structures for a largerefractive index change caused by current injection

Tensile-strained multiple quantum-well (MQW) structures with camel-back shaped first valence sub-bands are proposed as structures with a large refractive index change caused by current injection. These structures have a high joint density of states at the absorption edge, and the injected carriers in the structures have a long lifetime because of separation in the k-space between electrons and holes. The refractive index change caused by current injection is calculated for camel-back InGaAs/InGaAsP strained MQW structures for 1.55 μm-wavelength light. These structures show a larger refractive index change than the other InGaAs/InGaAsP strained/unstrained MQW structures     

Band-edge aligned quaternary carrier barriers in InGaAs-AlGaAshigh-power diode lasers for improved high-temperature operation

A new type of band-edge aligned carrier barrier is introduced into InGaAs-AlGaAs single quantum-well (SQW) high-power diode laser structures in order to prevent thermionic emission and the overflow of carriers at elevated operating temperatures. These barriers, which are located in the direct vicinity of the active zone of the laser, are undoped to avoid free-carrier absorption. An InGaAs-AlGaAs SQW laser structure with a 10-nm-thick AlGaAsSb electron-blocking layer on the p-side of an In_0.2Ga_0.8As quantum well was realized. The composition of this layer was adjusted so that its valence-band edge matches that of the adjacent AlGaAs waveguide layer. This is to prevent any additional voltage drop or series resistance due to the injection of holes into the quantum well through the electron blocking layer. These lasers show a high characteristic temperature T ₀ of about 225 K for 1500-μm-long as-cleaved devices, which is about 60 K higher than the same laser structure without the blocking layer. Simultaneously low internal losses (α_i≈1.5 cm^-1 at 20°C) and high internal quantum efficiencies (η_i≈93% at 20°C) are achieved. No additional voltage drop or series resistance was measured. The higher temperature stability is mainly attributed to the suppression of carrier leakage and a reduced free-carrier absorption at elevated temperatures     

Monolithic integration of a quantum-well laser and an opticalamplifier using an asymmetric twin-waveguide structure

We demonstrate the monolithic integration of a 1.55 μm wavelength InGaAsP-InP multiple-quantum-well (MQW) laser and a traveling-wave optical amplifier using an asymmetric, vertical twin-waveguide structure. The laser and amplifier share the same strained InGaAsP MQW active layer grown by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy, while the underlying passive waveguide layer is used for on-chip optical interconnections between the active devices. The asymmetric twin-waveguide structure uses the difference in modal gains to discriminate between the even and odd modes     

Comparison between tensile-strained AlGaInP SQW and MQW LDsemitting at 615 nm

The optimum design for tensile-strained quantum-well structures, and the laser characteristics of AlGaInP LDs emitting at 615-635 nm are investigated. MQW structures are effective in reducing threshold currents at wavelengths shorter than 620 nm. The lowest threshold current of 95 mA at 20°C is attained in a quaternary MQW LD emitting at 615 nm     

Calculating the optical properties of multidimensionalheterostructures: Application to the modeling of quaternary quantum welllasers

A method for calculating the electronic states and optical properties of multidimensional semiconductor quantum structures is described. The method is applicable to heterostructures with confinement in any number of dimensions: e.g. bulk, quantum wells, quantum wires and quantum dots. It is applied here to model bulk and multiquantum well (MQW) InGaAsP active layer quaternary lasers. The band parameters of the quaternary system required for the modeling are interpolated from the available literature. We compare bulk versus MQW performance, the effects of compressive and tensile strain, room temperature versus high temperature operation and 1.3 versus 1.55 pm wavelength operation. Our model shows that: compressive strain improves MQW laser performance. MQW lasers have higher amplification per carrier and higher differential gain than bulk lasers, however, MQW performance is far from ideal because of occupation of non-lasing minibands. This results in higher carrier densities at threshold than in bulk lasers, and may nullify the advantage of MQW lasers over bulk devices for high temperature operation     

Luminescence distribution and hole transport in asymmetric InGaN multiple-quantum well light-emitting diodes

Asymmetric InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum well(MQW) light-emitting diodes were fabricated to expose the luminescence distribution and explore the hole transport.Under electrical injection,the sample with a wNQW active region in which the first QW nearest the p-side(QW1) is wider than the subsequent QWs shows a single long-wavelength light-emission peak arising from QW1.The inverse nWQW sample with a narrow QW1 shows one short-wavelength peak and one long-wavelength peak emitted separately from QW1 and the su...     

GaAs和GaAs/AlGaAs多层量子阱中载流子的超快动力学(英文)

The ultrafast photoexcited carrier dynamics in bulk GaAs and GaAs/ AlGaAs multiple quantum well(MQW)structure has been studied using femtosecond laser pulse pump-probe techniques on the samples grown by MBE. A hot carrier cooling time of 1.5ps in MQW is measured at room temperature. Also, optical phonon emission at 33meV is observed in this sample. These results are found to be similar to that observed in bulk GaAs. A comparison of the hot carrier cooling rates for the two cases suggests that the infra-sub-band optical phonon scattering in MQW may play a dominant role in the cooling of highly excited hot carriers for the narrow wells. The experimental results agree well with that predicted by a simple infinite depth square-well model.     

Comparison of Auger recombination in GaInAs-AlInAs multiple quantum well structure and in bulk GaInAs

Carrier lifetime has been measured in GaInAs-AlInAs multiple quantum well structures and in thick GaInAs samples for local carrier densities between2 times 10^{17}and5 times 10^{19}cm^-3. Carrier lifetime and Auger recombination are found to be very close (±20 percent) in the two structures. The Auger limited T0values calculated for DH and MQW lasers are found to be, respectively, 93 and 170 K. Optimization of the quantum well laser as a function of the number of wells in the active region is discussed.