Controlling the wavelength of InGaAs/GaAs/InGaP lasers by ion implantation

The possibility of controlling the wavelength of emission from an InGaAs/GaAs/InGaP laser heterostructure with strained quantum wells (QWs) using medium-energy proton implantation followed by thermal annealing has been studied. It is established that the optimum proton energy is related to the arrangement of QWs in the structure (e.g., 150 keV for QWs at a depth of ≈1.3 μm). Proton irradiation to a total dose of 6 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻² followed by annealing at 700°C allows the wavelength of emission from the modified region to be decreased by 8–10 nm at minimum losses in the output intensity. The observed effect can be used to obtain two-band emission from the same chip and has good prospects for use in the development of new optoelectronic schemes.