Band-Structure Engineering in Strained Semiconductor Lasers

IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics

Volumn 30, Issue 2, 1994, Pages 366-379

  O'Reilly, Eoin P ^a   Adams, Alfred R ^c  

^a FRAUNHOFER INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SOLID STATE PHYSICS IAF   (Germany)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SURREY   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIV MONTPELLIER   (France)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BAND STRUCTURE; PHONONS; SEMICONDUCTING GALLIUM ARSENIDE; SEMICONDUCTING INDIUM COMPOUNDS;

AUGER RECOMBINATION; VALENCE BANDS;

SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS;

EID: 0028380709     PISSN: 00189197     EISSN: 15581713     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1109/3.283784     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. A. R. Adams, “Band structure engineering for low-threshold high efficiency semiconductor lasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 22, pp. 249–250, 1986.
2. E. Yablonovitch and E. O. Kane, “Reduction of lasing threshold current density by the lowering of valence band effective mass,” J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 4, pp. 504–506, 1986.
3. I. Suemune, L. A. Coldren, M. Yamanishi, and Y. Kan, “Extremely wide modulation bandwidth in a low threshold current strained QW laser,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 53, pp. 1378–1380, 1988.
4. A. Ghiti, E. P. O’Reilly, and A. R. Adams, “Improved dynamics and linewidth enhancement factor in strained-layer lasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 25, pp. 821–823, 1989.
5. K. Y. Lau, S. Xin, W. I. Wang, N. Bar-Chaim, and M. Mittelstein, “Enhancement of modulation bandwidth in InGaAs strained-layer single quantum well lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 55, pp. 1173–1175, 1989.
6. A. R. Adams and E. P. O’Reilly, “Semiconductor lasers take the strain,” Physics World, vol. 5, no. 10, pp. 43–47, Oct. 1992.
7. M. G. A. Bernard and B. Duraffourg, “Laser conditions in semiconductors,” Phys. Stat. Sol., vol. 1, pp. 699–703, 1961.
8. G. C. Osbourn, “Strained-layer superlattices: A brief review,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 22, pp. 1677–1681, 1986.
9. J. R. Schirber, J. J. Fritz, and L. R. Dawson, “Light-hole conduction in InGaAs/GaAs strained-layer superlattices,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 46, pp. 187–189, 1985.
10. E. P. O’Reilly, “Valence band engineering in strained-layer structures,” Semicond. Sci. Technol., vol. 4, pp. 121–137, 1989.
11. D. Lancefield, W. Batty, C. G. Crookes, E. P. O’Reilly, A. R. Adams, K. P. Homewood, G. Sundaram, R. J. Nicholas, M. Emeny, and C. R. Whitehouse, “Pressure dependence of light-hole transport in strained InGaAs/GaAs,” Surf Sci., vol. 229, pp. 122–125, 1990.
12. M. P. C. M. Krijn, G. W. t’Hooft, M. J. B. Boermans, P. J. A. Thijs, J. J. M. Binsma, L. F. Tiemeijer, and C. J. van der Poel, “Improved performances of compressively as well as tensile-strained quantum well lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 61, pp. 1772–1774, 1992.
13. M. Silver and E. P. O’Reilly, “Gain and radiative current density in InGaAs/InGaAsP lasers with electrostatically confined electron states,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 30, 1994.
14. W. A. Harrison, Electronic Structure and the Properties of Solids. San Francisco, CA: Freeman, 1980.
15. E. P. O’Reilly, G. Jones, A. Ghiti, and A. R. Adams, “Improved performance due to suppression of spontaneous emission in tensile-strained strained semiconductor lasers,” Electron. Lett, vol. 27, pp. 1417–1419, 1991.
16. M. Sugawara, “Theoretical calculations of optical gain in In 1- x Ga x As/InP quantum wells under biaxially compressive and tensile strain,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 60, pp. 1842–1844, 1992.
17. G. Jones and E. P. O’Reilly, “Improved performance of long-wavelength strained bulk-like semiconductor lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 29, pp. 1344–1354, 1993.
18. P. J. A. Thijs, J. J. M. Binsma, L. F. Tiemeijer, and T. van Dongen, “Improved performance 1.5 pm wavelength tensile and compressive strained InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum well lasers (Invited),” in Proc. ECOC, 1991, pp. 31–38.
19. W. S. Ring, A. R. Adams, P. J. A. Thijs, and T. van Dongen, “Elimination of intervalence band absorption in compressively strained InGaAs/InP 1.5 µm MQW lasers observed by hydrostatic pressure measurements,” Electron. Lett., vol. 28, pp. 569–570, 1992.
20. See, e.g., J. J. Coleman, “Strained layer quantum well heterostructure lasers,” in Quantum Well Lasers, P. S. Zory, Ed. New York: Academic, 1993, ch. 8, pp. 367–413.
21. L. F. ‘Tiemeijer, P. J. A. Thijs, T. van Dongen, R. W. M. Slootweg, J. M. M. van der Heijden, J. J. M. Binsma, and M. P. C. M. Krijn, “Polarisation insensitive multiple quantum well laser amplifiers for the 1300nm window,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 62, pp. 826–828, 1993.
22. F. C. Frank and J. H. van der Merwe, “One-dimensional dislocations II: Misfitting monolayers and oriented overgrowth,” Proc. Roy. Soc. A, vol. 198, pp. 216–225, 1949.
23. J. W. Matthews and A. E. Blakeslee, “Defects in epitaxial multilayers, I: Misfit dislocations,” J. Cryst. Growth, vol. 27, pp. 118–125, 1974; J. W. Matthews and A. E. Blakeslee, “Defects in epitaxial multilayers, II: Dislocation pile-ups, threading dislocations, slip lines and cracks,” J. Cryst. Growth, vol. 29, pp. 273–280, 1976; J. W. Matthews and A. E. Blakeslee, “Defects in epitaxial multilayers, III: Preparation of almost perfect multilayers,” J. Cryst. Growth, vol. 32, pp. 265–273, 1976.
24. R. People and J. C. Bean, “Calculation of critical layer thickness versus lattice mismatch for Ge x Si 1-x /Si strained-layer heterostructures,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 47, pp. 322–324, 1985.
25. T. J. Andersson, Z. G. Chen, V. D. Kulakovskii, A. Uddin, and J. T. Vallin, “Variation of the critical layer thickness with In content in strained InGaAs-GaAs quantum wells grown by MBE,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 51, pp. 752–754, 1987.
26. D. P. Bour, D. B. Gilbert, K. B. Fabian, J. P. Bednarz, and M. Ettenberg, “Low degradation rate in strained InGaAs/AlGaAs single quantum well lasers,” IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett., vol. 2, 1 73-174, 1990.
27. G. L. Harnagel, T. L. Paoli, R. L. Thornton, R. D. Burnham, and D. L. Smith, “Accelerated aging of 100-mW c w multiple-stripe GaAlAs lasers grown by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 46, pp. 118–120, 1985.
28. R. G. Waters and R. K. Bertaska, “Degradation phenomena in (A1)GaAs quantum well lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 52, pp. 179–181, 1988.
29. P. J. A. Thijs, J. J. M. Binsma, L. F. Tiemeijer, P. I. Kuindersma, and T. van Dongen, “Low-pressure organometallic vapour phase epitaxial growth and characterization of strained-layer InGaAs-InGaAsP quantum well lasers,” J. Microelectron. Eng., vol. 18, pp. 57–74, 1992.
30. F. H. Pollak, “Effects of homogeneous strain on the electronic and vibrational levels in semiconductors,” in Semiconductors and Semimetals, vol. 32. New York: Academic, 1990, ch. 2.
31. A. Haug, “Relation between the To values of bulk and quantum well GaAs,” Appl. Phys. B, vol. 44, pp. 151–153, 1987.
32. Y. C. Chang, H. Y. Chu, and S. G. Chung, “Electron-hole liquid in InAs quantum wells under uniaxial stress,” Phys. Rev. B, vol. 33, p p. 7364–7367, 1986.
33. L. Vina, L. Munoz, N. Mestres, E. S. Koteles, A. Ghiti, E. P. O’Reilly, D. C. Bertolet, and K. M. Lau, “Valence-band-shape modification due to band coupling in strained quantum wells,” Phys. Rev. B, vol. 47, pp. 13926–13929, 1993.
34. S. W. Corzine, R.-H. Yan, and L. A. Coldren, “Optical gain in III-V bulk and quantum well semiconductors,” in Quantum Well Lasers, P. S. Zory, Ed. New York: Academic, 1993, ch. 1, pp. 17–96.
35. A. Ghiti and E. P. O’Reilly, “Valence band engineering in quantum well lasers,” in Quantum Well Lasers, P. S. Zory, Ed. New York: Academic, 1993, ch. 7, pp. 329–366.
36. J. M. Luttinger and W. Kohn, “Motion of electrons and holes in perturbed periodic potentials,” Phys. Rev., vol. 97, pp. 869–883, 1955.
37. R. Eppenga, M. F. H. Schuurmans, and S. Colak, “New k.p theory for GaAs/Ga1-x Al x As type quantum wells,” Phys. Rev. B, vol. 30, pp. 1554–1564, 1987.
38. C. E. Zah, R. Bhat, B. Pathak, C. Caneau, F. J. Favire, N. C. Andreakis, D. M. Hwang, M. A. Koza, C. Y. Chen, and T. P. Lee, “Low threshold 1.5 µm tensile-strained single quantum well lasers,” Electron Lett., vol. 27, pp. 1414–1416, 1991.
39. A. D. Smith, A. T. R. Briggs, A. Vranic, and K. Scarrott, “MOVPE growth and assessment of InP-based tensile strained MQW laser structure,” extended abstract, 1993 European Workshop on MOVPE, Malmo, Sweden.
40. A. Valster, C. J. van der Poel, C. J. Flake, and M. J. R. Boermans, “Effect of strain on the threshold current of GaInP/AlGa l nP quantum well lasers emitting at 633nm,” in Dig. 13th IEEE Int. Semiconductor Laser Conf., Takamatsu, 1992, pp. 152–153.
41. L. Kobayashi, “Room temperature CW operation of AlGalnP double-heterostructure heterostructure visible lasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 21, pp. 931–932, 1985.
42. R. S. Geels, D. F. Welch, D. R. Scifres, D. P. Baur, D. W. Treat, and R. D. Bringans, “High power, low threshold, single mode 630nm laser diodes,” Electron. Lett., vol. 28, pp. 1810–1811, 1992.
43. M. J. Hawley, A. R. Adams, E. P. O’Reilly, M. Silver, and A. Valster, “Important loss mechanisms in visible lasers revealed by hydrostatic pressure,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 29, pp. 1885–1888, 1993.
44. A. R. Beattie and P. T. Landsberg, “Auger effect in semiconductors,” Proc. Roy. Soc., ser. A, vol. 249, pp. 16–29, 1959.
45. M. Asada, A. R. Adams, K. E. Stubkjaer, Y. Suematsu, Y. Itaha, and S. Arai, “The temperature dependence of the threshold current in G aInAsP/InP DH lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-17, pp. 611–619, 1981.
46. S. Hausser, G. Fuchs, A. Hangleiter, K. Streubel, and W. T. Tsang, “Auger recombination in bulk and quantum well InGaAs,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 56, pp. 913–915, 1990.
47. G. Fuchs, C. Schiedel, A. Hangleiter, V. Harle, and F. Scholz, “Auger recombination in strained and unstrained InGaAs/InGaAsP multiple quantum well lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 62, pp. 396–398, 1993.
48. M. C. Wang, K. Kash, C. E. Zah, R. Bhat, and S. L. Chuang, “Measurement of non-radiative Auger and radiative recombination rates in strained-layer quantum well systems,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 62, pp. 166–168, 1993.
49. A. Yariv, Quantum Electronics, 3rd. ed. New York: Wiley, 1989, p. 253.
50. A. R. Adams, M. J. Hawley, E. P. O’Reilly, and W. S. Ring, “The success of strained layer lasers elucidated by high pressure experiments,” Japan. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 32, suppl. 32-1, pp. 358–360, 1993.
51. G. Fuchs, J. Wirer, A. Hangleiter, V. Harle, F. Scholz, R. W. Glew, and L. Goldstein, “Intervalence band absorption in strained and unstrained InGaAs multiple quantum well structures,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 60, pp. 231–233, 1992; I. Joindot and J. L. Beylat, “Intervalence band absorption coefficient measurements in bulk layer, strained and unstrained multiquantum well L55µm semiconductor lasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 29, pp. 604–606, 1993.
52. R. I. Taylor, R. A. Abram, M. G. Burt, and C. Smith, “Auger recombination in a quantum well heterostructure,” IEE Proc. J. Optoelectron., vol. 132, pp. 364–370, 1985.
53. A. Haug, “Auger recombination in quantum well InGaAs,” Electron Lett., vol. 26, pp. 1415–1416, 1990.
54. A. Haug, “Phonon-assisted Auger recombination in quantum well semiconductors,” Appl. Phys. A, vol. 51, pp. 354–356, 1990.
55. P. J. A. Thijs, L. F. Tiemeljer, J. J. M. Binsma, and T. va n Dongen, “Progress in long-wavelength strained-layer InGaAs(P) quantum well lasers and amplifiers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 30, this issue, 1994.
56. E. P. O'Reilly and M. Silver, “Temperature sensitivity and high temperature operation of long wavelength semiconductor lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 63, pp. 3318–3320, 1993.
57. J. O’Gorman, A. F. J. Levi, S. Schmitt-Rink, T. Tanbun-Ek, D. L. Coblentz, and R. A. Logan, “On the temperature sensitivity of semiconductor lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 60, pp. 157–159, 1992.
58. Y. Zou, J. S. Osinski, P. grodzinski, P. D. Dapkus, W. Rideout, W. F. Sharfin, and F. D. Crawford, “Effect of Auger recombination and differential gain on the temperature sensitivity of 1.5µm quantum well lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 62, pp. 175–177. 1993.
59. J. Barrau, T. Amand, M. Brousseau, R. J. Simes, and L. Goldstein, “Induced electrostatic confinement of the electron gas in tensile strained InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum well lasers,” J. Appl. Phys., vol. 71, pp. 5768–5770, 1992.
60. C. H. Henry, “Theory of the linewidth of semiconductor lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-18, pp. 259–264, 1982.
61. T. Ohtoshi and N. Chinone, “Linewidth enhancement factor in strained quantum well lasers,” IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett., vol. 1. pp. 117–119, 1989.
62. B. Zhao, T. R. Chen, S. Wu, Y. H. Zhuang, Y. Yamada, and A. Yariv, “Direct measurement of linewidth enhancement factors in quantum well lasers of different barrier heights,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 62, pp. 1591–1593, 1993.
63. M. G. Burt, “Linewidth enhancement factor for quantum well lasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 20, pp. 27–29, 1984.
64. Y. Hirayama, M. Morinaga, M. Tanimura, M. Onomura, M. Funemizu, M. Kushibe, N. Suzuki, and M. Nakamura, “10 Gbitis l ow chirp performance of strained layer multiquantum well DFB laser,” Electron. Lett., vol. 27, pp. 241–243, 1991; L. F. Tiemeijer, P. J. A. Thijs, J. J. M. Binsma, and T. van Dongen, “Effect of free carriers on the linewidth enhancement factor of InGaAs/InP (strained-layer) multiple quantum well lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 60, pp. 2466–2468, 1992; A. Schonfelder, S. Weisser, J. D. Ralston, and J. Rosenzweig, “α-factor improvements in high-speed p-doped In 0.35 Ga 0.6 5 As/GaAs MQW lasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 29, pp. 1685–1686, 1993.
65. J. E. Bowers, B. R. Hemenway, A. H. Gnauck, and D. P. Wilt, “Highspeed InGaAsP constricted-mesa lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 22, pp. 833–843, 1986.
66. S. D. Offsey, W. J. Schaff, P. J. Tasker, and L. F. Eastman, “Optical and microwave performance of GaAs-AlGaAs and strained layer InGaAs-GaAsAlGaAs GR1NSCH SQW lasers,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 2, pp. 9–11, 1990.
67. R. Nagarajan, T. Fukushima, J. E. Bowers, R. Geels, and L. A. Coldren, “High speed InGaAs/GaAs strained MQW lasers with low damping,” Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 58, pp. 2326–2328, 1991.
68. J. D. Ralston, S. Weisser, I. Esquivias, E. C. Larkins, J. Rosenzweig, P. J. Tasker, and J. Fleissner, “Control of differential gain, nonlinear gain, and damping factor for high-speed applications of GaAs-based MQW lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 29, pp. 1648–1659, 1993.
69. G. P. Agrawal, “Gain nonlinearities in semiconductor lasers: Theory and application to distributed feedback lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-23, pp. 860–868, 1987.
70. A. Ghiti and E. P. O’Reilly, “Non-linear gain effects in strained-layer lasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 26, pp. 1978–1980, 1990.
71. B. N. Gomatam and A. P. deFonzo, “Theory of hot carrier effects on non-linear gain in GaAs-AlGaAs lasers and amplifiers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 26, pp. 1698–1704, 1990.
72. W. Rideout, W. F. Sharfin, E. S. Koteles, M. O. Vassell, and B. Elaman, “Well-barrier hole burning in quantum well lasers,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 3, pp. 784–786, 1991.
73. E. Meland, R. Holmstrom, J. Schalfer, R. B. Lauer, and W. Powazinik, “Extremely high frequency (24 GHz) InGaAsP diode lasers with excellent modulation efficiency,” Electron. Lett., vol. 26, pp. 1827–1829, 1990_
74. P. A. Morton, R. A. Logan, T. Tanbun-Ek, P. F. Sciortino, J r., A. M. Sergent, R. K. Montgomery, and B. T. Lee, “25GHz bandwidth 1.55μm GainAsP p-doped multiple-quantum-well lasers,” Electron. Lett., vol. 28, pp. 2156–2157, 1992.
75. K. Uomi, “Modulation-doped multi-quantum well (MD-MQW) lasers. I. Theory,” Japan. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 29, pp. 81–87, 1990.
76. K. Magari, M. Okamoto, H. Yasaka, K. Sato, Y. Noguchi, and O. Mikami, “Polarization insensitive travelling wave type amplifier using strained multiple quantum well structure,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 2, pp. 556–558, 1990.
77. A. Mathur and P. D. Dapkus, “Polarization insensitive strained quantum well gain medium for lasers and optical amplifiers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 61, pp. 2845–2847.