A ZnSe/BeTe p-grading superlattice with a low voltage drop for efficient hole injection in green-yellow BeZnCdSe quantum well laser

Abstract

A ZnSe/BeTe p-grading superlattice (p-GSL) with a low voltage drop is reported for BeZnCdSe quantum well laser diode (LD) in green-yellow visible range. A p-GSL is inserted between a p⁺-BeTe for ohmic contact layer and a ZnSe/BeMgZnSe p-cladding layer in a LD, for an efficient hole injection in spite of a large potential barrier height of ~0.8 eV between these layers. A GSL design has hence a great impact on a threshold voltage of lasing and thus reliability in LDs. Simple p-n junction devices with various GSL designs are fabricated, where a p-n junction is formed between p-ZnSe and a n-GaAs. In a p-GSL where a pair of ZnSe/BeTe is repeated, BeTe thickness increases with fixed monolayer (ML) step, while ZnSe thickness decreases with the same step when next pair of ZnSe/BeTe is grown. While a grading of 1 ML step is used in the previous LDs, the new GSL design with smaller grading step of 0.5 ML gives a 2 V lower voltage at 200 A/cm² current injection. Then, LDs characteristics are compared with the GSL of new and old designs, while other layers in LDs are kept nearly identical, which is confirmed by a similar threshold current of ~80 mA and an emission wavelength at ~540 nm in these LDs. The LD with the new GSL design showed a lower threshold voltage for a lasing as well as a higher output power due to a lower device heating.