Title :
Radiative performance of strained-layer lasers
Author :
Jones, G. ; Ghiti, A. ; Silver, M. ; O´Reilly, E.P. ; Adams, A.R.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Phys., Surrey Univ., Guildford, UK
fDate :
2/1/1993 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
It is shown that application of biaxial tension to the active region of a bulk-like III-V semiconductor laser can significantly enhance TM gain compared to TE gain and reduce the threshold current density, owing to improved suppression of spontaneous emission polarised in the growth plane of the laser structure. The differential gain is enhanced compared to unstrained structures, and a larger peak gain can be achieved than in comparable structures under biaxial compression. The authors include the spin-split-off band in their calculations and show that the strain-induced interaction with this band has a significant influence on the character of the valence states, particularly in tensile-strained structures. Using idealised quantum-well calculations, the authors investigate the effect of changing the valence band mass mν with respect to the conduction band mass and how this affects the radiative properties of a laser structure. It is shown that, although it is indeed the case that the transparency carrier density always increases with increasing mν, for the authors´ ideal model, the radiative current density can decrease
Keywords :
carrier density; laser modes; laser theory; semiconductor lasers; TE gain; TM gain; active region; biaxial tension; bulk-like III-V semiconductor laser; conduction band mass; differential gain; growth plane; idealised quantum-well calculations; laser structure; peak gain; polarized light; radiative current density; radiative properties; spin-split-off band; spontaneous emission; strain-induced interaction; strained-layer lasers; tensile-strained structures; threshold current density; transparency carrier density; valence band mass; valence states;
Journal_Title :
Optoelectronics, IEE Proceedings J