Intervalence band absorption in bulk InSb lasers

Author

Carroll, M. ; Blood, P. ; Ashley, T. ; Elliott, C.T.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. & Astron., Univ. of Wales Coll. of Cardiff, UK

Volume

144

Issue

5

fYear

1997

fDate

10/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

299

Lastpage

304

Abstract

Four-band Kane theory with the effects of remote bands included via perturbation theory has been used to predict the gain spectra in the active region of bulk InSb under injection. The effect of intervalence band absorption (IVA) between light and heavy hole bands has been included by calculation from first principles and is found to increase in significance with increasing temperature. Comparison with experimental absorption spectra for doped samples shows good agreement indicating the model´s validity. The authors show that to achieve room temperature operation, carrier densities of the order of 5×10¹⁸ cm^-3 are required to overcome IVA. Such carrier densities are unlikely to be attainable in bulk devices owing to the large Auger coefficients associated with InSb. Consequently, uncooled laser operation in a device relying on purely bulk InSb properties does not seem practical

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; band structure; carrier density; indium compounds; infrared sources; laser theory; perturbation theory; semiconductor device models; semiconductor lasers; InSb; absorption spectra; active region; bulk InSb lasers; bulk InSb under injection; carrier densities; four-band Kane theory; gain spectra; heavy hole bands; increasing temperature; intervalence band absorption; large Auger coefficients; light hole bands; perturbation theory; purely bulk InSb properties; room temperature operation; semiconductor lasers; uncooled laser operation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Optoelectronics, IEE Proceedings -

Publisher

iet

ISSN

1350-2433

Type

jour

DOI

10.1049/ip-opt:19971313

Filename

674332