Amplified spontaneous emission and carrier pinning in laser diodes

Theoretical and experimental results for the temperature dependence of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in laser diodes (LDs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are presented. The theoretical model takes into account conduction band nonparabolicity and band-gap renormalization. The gain spectrum is calculated from the theoretical spontaneous emission spectrum, and both compare very well with experimental data. From a fit to the observed temperature dependence of ASE for an LED and the gain spectrum for an LD with a structure identical to that of the LED except for mirror reflectivity, it is possible to establish carrier density as a function of injection current for both devices. It is shown that photons fluctuating into cavity modes give rise to substantial subthreshold carrier pinning in laser diodes. These fluctuations extract an extra current from the device and play an increasingly important role with increasing temperature