Diode laser fabrication using proton bombardment of PbTe

Diode lasers, in which the p-n junction was formed by causing type conversion in a p-type PbTe substrate using proton damage, have been made and their performance characterised. Variations of the energy, flux and fluence of the proton bombardment over wide ranges were found to have little or no effect on the diode I-V, C-V or power output characteristics, but such variations did affect the yield of diodes which lased. The C-V characteristics indicated that the p-n junctions were abrupt. The I-V characteristics suggested that the forward conduction current was dominated by a non-radiative multi-step tunnelling process.