Current-injection efficiency in semiconductor lasers with a waveguide based on quantum wells

A dynamic distributed diffusion-drift model of laser heterostructures, which takes into account carrier capture by quantum wells, is developed. The leakage currents in the lasing mode are calculated for different laser structures without wide-gap emitters: InGaAs/GaAs (lasing wavelength λ = 0.98 μm), InGaAsP/InP (λ = 1.3 μm), and InGaAs/InP (λ = 1.55 μm). It is shown that consideration of the finite carrier-capture time is of major importance for calculating structures with deep quantum wells. The ratio of the leakage currents to the total current in the structures with deep quantum wells (InGaAsP/InP and InGaAs/InP) increases with an increase in the injection current and may reach a few percent when the lasing threshold is multiply exceeded.