SCH laser recombination rate from EBIC profiles

A new method to evaluate the total recombination velocity R at the quantum wells (QW) using electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) linescans is presented. The procedure consists in, as a first step, estimating the electron-hole pairs (e-h) generation function g(x, y, z) applying Monte Carlo calculations where the incident electron energy dependence of the inelastic-elastic scattering cross-section proportion is introduced. Secondly, the steady-state diffusion equation is applied to minority carriers in each differential volume of e-h generation. This method is then used to investigate separate-confinement laser heterostructures (SCH). From the comparison between experimental and calculated EBIC linescans, minority carriers diffusion lengths at both sides of the laser junction and recombination rate in the active region are deduced. As a result, the recombination rate in the QWs of the laser structure is evaluated to be R ≈ 3 × 106 cm s−1.