Low threshold current GaAs/AlGaAs GRIN-SCH lasers grown bymolecular beam epitaxy on Si3N4 masked substrates

High-performance single-quantum-well graded-refractive index separate confinement heterostructure (SQW GRINSCH) laser have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si₃N₄ patterned GaAs (100) substrates. Lasers grown on stripe windows orientated in the [011] direction have optical waveguiding and current confinement supplied by facetting occurring during growth. Lasers fabricated on 10 μm wide Si ₃N₄ openings have threshold currents as low as 15 mA for a 500 μm-long cavity. The current density required to reach optical transparency is 144 A/cm²; an internal quantum efficiency of 81%, and a peak optical power of 70 mW per facet has been obtained. Device performance comparable to ridge lasers is observed in a self-aligned laser process     

High-power and low-threshold-current operation of 1.3 μm strain-compensated AlGaInAs/AlGaInAs multiple-quantum-well laser diodes

Low-threshold-current and high-temperature operation of 1.3 μm wavelength AlGaInAs/AlGaInAs strain-compensated multiple-quantum-well laser diodes (LDs) with a linearly graded index separate confinement heterostructure also made up of AlGaInAs has been successfully fabricated. The threshold current density and differential quantum efficiency are 400 A/cm² and 22% for the as-cleaved broad-area LDs with a 900 μm cavity length, respectively. The calculated internal quantum efficiency, internal optical loss, and threshold gain are 23%, 6.5 cm⁻¹, and 45 cm⁻¹, respectively. The threshold current and slope efficiency at room temperature for the 3 μm-ridge-stripe LDs without facet coating are 12 mA and 0.17 W/A, respectively. The peak wavelength is at 1295 nm with an injection current of 60 mA. With increasing the temperature up to 100 °C, the threshold current will increase up to 41 mA. The characteristic temperature is around 78 K in the range from 20 to 60 °C and 56 K in the range from 60 to 100 °C. The wavelength swing varied with temperature is 0.43 nm/°C for the LDs operated at 60 mA and room temperature.     

Growth and characterization of continuously graded index separateconfinement heterostructure (GRIN-SCH) InGaAs-InP long wavelengthstrained layer quantum-well lasers by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

A report is presented on the growth and characterization of the first InGaAs-InP-based graded-index separate-confinement-heterostructure (GRIN-SCH) strained quantum-well lasers operating near 1.47 μm. The structure features linearly graded InGaAsP waveguide layers for both optical and carrier confinement in a very narrow, strained quantum-well layers. The excellent structural quality of the active and waveguide regions has been confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis results. Strained quantum-well lasers with well widths as narrow as 5-6 nm were fabricated with threshold current densities as low as 750 A/cm². Buried-heterostructure lasers based on strained quantum-well active lasers exhibit threshold currents as low as 10-15 mA with quantum efficiency of 70-80%. With antireflection coating on one side of the sample, the laser shows threshold current of 35 mA with highest output power of 160 mW     

Optical and RF characteristics of short-cavity-lengthmultiquantum-well strained-layer lasers

The optical and RF characteristics of short-cavity, strained-layer In_0.3Ga_0.7As graded-index separate-confinement-heterostructure (GRINSCH) multiple-quantum-well ridge waveguide lasers are described. Short-cavity-length strained-layer lasers with four In_0.3Ga_0.7As quantum wells have been fabricated using chemically assisted ion beam etching (CAIBE). These lasers have a very low K factor of 0.14 ns and a high differential gain of 1.1×10^-15 cm². A 3 dB modulation bandwidth of 23.5 GHz has been measured on a 50 μm cavity-length device. This is the highest reported bandwidth for a quantum well laser     

1.3-μm n-type modulation-doped AlGaInAs/AlGaInAsstrain-compensated multiple-quantum-well laser diodes

In this paper, we report the fabrication and characterization of 1.3-μm AlGaInAs/AlGaInAs laser diodes (LDs) with an n-type modulation-doped strain-compensated multiple-quantum-well (MD-SC-MQW) active region and a linearly graded index separate confinement heterostructure. The barrier in the MD-SC-MQW active region contains the 28 Å Si-doped modulation-doped region and two 29 Å surrounding undoped regions that serve to prevent the overflow of Si doping atoms into the wells. We investigate the threshold current density, infinite current density, differential quantum efficiency, internal quantum efficiency, internal optical loss, threshold gain (for the cavity length of 300 μm), and transparency current density as a function of doping concentration in the n-type AlGaInAs barrier for the 1.3-μm MD-SC-MQW LDs. The theoretical and experimental results show that the optimum doping concentration of doped barriers is 5×10 ¹⁸ cm^-3. With this optimum condition, the 3.5-μm ridge-striped LDs without facet coating will exhibit a lower threshold current and a higher differential quantum efficiency of 18 mA and 52.3% under the CW operation as compared to those of 22 mA and 43% for the undoped active region, respectively. In addition, a high characteristic temperature of 70 K, a low slope efficiency drop of -1.3 dB between 20 and 70°C, and a wavelength swing of 0.4 nm/°C for the LDs operated at 60 mA and 8 mW can be obtained in the LDs with doped barriers     

Monolithic integration in InGaAs-InGaAsP multiple-quantum-wellstructures using laser intermixing

The bandgap of InGaAs-InGaAsP multiple-quantum-well (MQW) material can be accurately tuned by photoabsorption-induced disordering (PAID), using a Nd:YAG laser, to allow lasers, modulators, and passive waveguides to be fabricated from a standard MQW structure. The process relies on optical absorption in the active region of the MQW to produce sufficient heat to cause interdiffusion between the wells and barriers. Bandgap shifts larger than 100 meV are obtainable using laser power densities of around 5 W·mm^-2 and periods of illumination of a few minutes to tens of minutes. This process provides an effective way of altering the emission wavelengths of lasers fabricated from a single epitaxial wafer. Blue shifts of up to 160 nm in the lasing spectra of both broad-area and ridge waveguide lasers are reported. The bandgap-tuned lasers are assessed in terms of threshold current density, internal quantum efficiency, and internal losses. The ON/OFF ratios of bandgap-tuned electroabsorption modulators were tested over a range of wavelengths, with modulation depths of 20 dB obtained from material which has been bandgap-shifted by 120 nm, while samples shifted by 80 nm gave modulation depths as high as 27 dB. Single-mode waveguide losses are as low as 5 dB·cm^-1 at 1550 mm. Selective-area disordering has been used in the fabrication of extended cavity lasers. The retention of good electrical and optical properties in intermixed material demonstrates that PAID is a promising technique for the integration of devices to produce photonic integrated circuits. A quantum-well intermixing technique using a pulsed laser is also demonstrated     

Low-threshold 1.5 μm compressive-strained multiple- andsingle-quantum-well lasers

Design considerations for low-threshold 1.5-μm lasers using compressive-strained quantum wells are discussed. Parameters include transparency current density, maximum modal gain, bandgap wavelength, and carrier confinement. The optical confinement for a thin quantum well in the separate-confinement heterostructure (SCH) and the step graded-index separate-confinement heterostructure (GRINSCH) are analyzed and compared. 1.5-μm compressive-strained multiple- and single-quantum-well lasers have been fabricated and characterized. As a result of the compressive strain, the threshold current density is loss limited instead of transparency limited. By the use of the step graded-index separate-confinement heterostructure to reduce the waveguide loss, a low threshold current density of 319 A/cm² was measured on compressive-strained single-quantum-well broad-area lasers with a 27 μ oxide stripe width     

AlInAs氧化物限制1.3μm低阈值边发射激光器

研究制作了一种利用AlInAs氧化物作为限制的1.3μm边发射AlGaInAs多量子阱激光器.有源层上方和下方的AlInAs波导层被氧化作为电流限制层.这种结构提供了良好的侧向电流限制和光场限制.当电流通道为5μm宽时,获得了12.9mA的阈值电流和0.47W/A的斜率效率.与具有相同宽度的脊条的脊波导结构的激光器相比,这种AlInAs氧化物限制的激光器的阈值电流降低了31.7%,斜率效率稍微有所提高.低阈值和高效率的特性表明,氧化AlInAs波导层能够提供良好的侧向电流限制.这种AlInAs氧化物限制的激光器垂直方向的远场半高全宽角为36.1°,而水平方向的是21.6°,表明AlInAs氧化物对侧向光场也有很强的限制能力.     

808 nm大功率无铝有源区非对称波导结构激光器

采用分别限制非对称波导结构,将光场从对称分布变为非对称分布,降低了载流子光吸收损耗,并允许p型区具有更高的掺杂水平,从而使器件电阻降低.对GaAsP/GaInP张应变单量子阱(SQW)非对称波导结构激光器的光场特性进行了理论分析,设计了波导层厚度,并制作了波长为808 nm的无铝有源区大功率半导体激光器.器件综合特性测试结果为:腔长900μm器件的阈值电流密度典型值为400 A/cm2,内损耗低至1.0 cm-1;连续工作条件下,150μm条宽器件输出功率达到6 W,最大斜率效率为1.25 W/A.器件激射波长为807.5 nm,平行和垂直结的发散角分别为3.0°和34.8°.20~70℃范围内特征温度达到133 K.结果表明,分别限制非对称波导结构是降低内损耗,提高大功率半导体激光器特性的有效措施.     

Gain measurements on GaAs-based quantum cascade lasers using atwo-section cavity technique

A two-section cavity device has been used to measure gain spectra and waveguide losses of a GaAs-based quantum cascade laser. The device operates at 8.9 μm and optical confinement is obtained by means of Al-free cladding layers. We investigated the gain characteristics in a spectral window of ~60 meV and up to 200 K. For current densities ranging from 1 to 8 kA/cm², we report a constant gain coefficient of 13 cm/kA at 4 K and 6 cm/kA at 200 K. At low temperatures and for current densities above 8 kA/cm², we observe gain saturation which we attribute to a reduced electron injection in the active region caused by space charge effects. We report a value of 22 cm ^-1 for the waveguide losses in good agreement with previous measurements     

High-Efficiency 808-nm InGaAlAs–AlGaAs Double-Quantum-Well Semiconductor Lasers With Asymmetric Waveguide Structures

The InGaAlAs-AlGaAs double-quantum-well semiconductor lasers grown by molecular beam epitaxy show high quantum efficiency and high power conversion efficiency at continuous-wave power output using asymmetric waveguide structures. The threshold current density and slope efficiency of the device are 180 A/cm² and 1.4 W/A, respectively. The internal loss and the internal quantum efficiency are 1.1 cm^-1 and 97%, respectively. The 75% maximum power conversion efficiency is achieved in 100-mum stripe widths 808-nm-emitting laser diodes with 1000-mum cavity length.     

Single-Facet Folded-Cavity Diode Laser With Ultrasmall Bend Radius High-Index-Contrast Oxidized AlGaAs Ridge Waveguide

AlGaAs heterostructure high-index-contrast (HIC) ridge waveguide (RWG) diode lasers incorporating a folded-cavity single-facet resonator with a folding bend radius as small as r=10 mum are demonstrated. Fabricated by a self-aligned deep dry etch (through the active region) plus nonselective O₂-enhanced wet thermal oxidization process, the low-index, insulating, and interface-passivating wet thermal oxide grown directly on the etch-exposed AlGaAs waveguide sidewalls yields a high lateral refractive index contrast of Deltan~1.7 and provides strong optical mode confinement. The HIC RWG device geometry also completely eliminates lateral current spreading, which results in an excellent overlap between the optical field and the gain region of the single InAlGaAs quantum-well graded-index separate confinement heterostructure. A threshold current of I_th=65mA is obtained for the r=10 mum device (a half-racetrack ring resonator), giving a threshold current density of Jth=1503 A/cm², 3.34 times higher than that of same-length straight lasers. At a bend radius of r=150 mum, I_th=16.6 mA, and J_th is comparable to straight cavity values, indicating that at this curvature there is negligible bending and scattering loss for the lowest-order waveguide mode     

Blue-light generation by frequency doubling of a laser diode in aperiodically domain-inverted LiTaO3 waveguide

The authors report quasi-phase matched second-harmonic generation by frequency doubling of a laser diode in LiTaO₃ having a first-order periodically domain-inverted region and proton-exchanged channel waveguide. A deep domain-inverted region and a low-loss channel waveguide with strong confinement are formed by using proton-exchange and quick heat treatment techniques. Utilizing this structure, a high normalized conversion efficiency of 157%/W is obtained with a Ti:Al₂O₃ laser. Using a temperature-controlled laser diode and AR coating on the input and output facet of the waveguide, the laser diode maintains single-mode oscillation without any mode hopping. Consequently, 1.1 mW of blue light is obtained at a wavelength of 436.5 nm     

Diode lasers emitting at 3 μm with 300 mW of continuous-wave output power

Type-I double-quantum-well GaSb-based diode lasers operating at 3 mum with room-temperature continuous-wave output power above 300 mW and peak power-conversion efficiency near 8 were designed and fabricated. Laser heterostructure comprised quinary AlGaInAsSb alloy as barrier and waveguide material. Use of quinary alloy resulted in adequate hole confinement. The waveguide thickness was chosen to maximise modal differential gain. Continuous-wave threshold current density about 100 A/cm² per quantum-well and slope efficiency of 100 mW/A were demonstrated at 17degC.     

High power single-mode (λ=1.3–1.6 μm) laser diodes based on quantum well InGaAsP/InP heterostructures

The possibility of achieving maximal optical output power in the single-mode lasing for mesa-stripe laser diodes fabricated on the basis of InGaAsP/InP quantum-well heterostructures with separate confinement have been studied both experimentally and theoretically. The basic condition for the single-mode lasing of laser diodes in a wide range of driving currents is shown to be the precise choice of the effective refractive index Δn _L discontinuity in the plane parallel to the p-n junction. A InGaAsP/InP separate confinement heterostructure with a step waveguide, with a threshold current density of 180 A/cm² and an internal quantum efficiency of stimulated emission of 93–99%, has been manufactured via the MOCVD method. The optimization of the mesa-stripe diode design for the developed InGaAsP/InP heterostructure is carried out with the aim of achieving maximal optical output power in the case of single-mode lasing. An output power of 185 mW is attained in the laser diode with the mesa-stripe width W=4.5 μm (λ=1480 nm). The maximal continuous output power was as high as 300 mW. The full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the lateral far-field pattern increased by 1° relative to the threshold value.     

Very closely spaced quadspot native-oxide confined 780-nmsemiconductor lasers

We describe the fabrication and characteristics of 7-μm spaced quadspot, independently addressable 785-nm native-oxide confined ridge waveguide laser diodes. The devices are fabricated from an Al_0.1 Ga_0.9As-Al_0.4Ga_0.6As-Al_0.5 In_0.5P quantum-well separate confinement heterostructure laser structure. Wet oxidation of the p-Al_0.5In_0.5P cladding layer is used to form a native oxide for not only ridge waveguide confinement, but also electrical insulation to allow electrical connection to laser stripes. These diodes show excellent performance: uniform threshold currents below 8 mA and differential quantum efficiencies over 35%/facet. The diodes show crosstalk less than 5%     

Wavelength tuning of high-speed InGaAs-GaAs-AlGaAs pseudomorphicMQW lasers via impurity-free interdiffusion

The impurity-free interdiffusion technique has been utilized to modify the operating wavelength of high-speed In_0.3Ga_0.65As-GaAs multiple quantum well lasers. Modulation bandwidths of up to 26 GHz (I_bias=50 mA) and modulation current efficiency factors of 5 GHz/mA^1/2 are demonstrated for 3×100 μm² ridge waveguide lasers following wavelength shifts of 32 nm (34 meV). These results demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating monolithic multiple wavelength laser arrays in which each element is capable of low-bias-current direct modulation at bandwidths exceeding 20 GHz     

Operating Characteristics of Semiconductor Quantum Well Lasers as Functions of the Waveguide Region Thickness

The performance characteristics of semiconductor lasers based on quantum wells (QWs) are theoretically studied as functions of the thickness of the waveguide region [optical confinement layer (OCL)]. The maximum modal gain, optical-confinement factor (in QWs, OCLs, and emitters), threshold current density, electron and hole densities (in QWs and OCLs), internal optical loss (in QWs, OCLs, and cladding layers), internal differential quantum efficiency, currents of stimulated and spontaneous recombination and the output optical power of the laser are calculated as functions of the OCL thickness. It is shown that up to pump current densities of 50 kA/cm² the dependence of the output power of the considered lasers on the OCL thickness is weak in the thickness range of 1.5–2.8 μm. This result is important for the development of high-brightness lasers, since such lasers use a wide waveguide to ensure low radiation divergence. It is shown that, at very high pump-current densities, the output power has a maximum as a function of the OCL width.

     

不同形状量子阱的量子限制效应

采用差分法求解有效质量方程，考虑轻重空穴的混合效应及应变效应，对三种不同形状的量子阱的能带结构、价带态密度、跃迁矩阵元进行了比较。在阱宽相同的条件下，方阱有最大的限制能力，但抛物阱和三角阱有更平坦的态密度曲线，使得以抛物阱和三角阱为有源区的激光器和半导体激光放大器可以有较低的透明电流密度。同时价带子带的耦合强烈改变了跃迁矩阵元，这对量子阱的增益特性会产生影响。