Dependence of polarization, gain, linewidth enhancement factor, and K factor on the sign of the strain of InGaAs/InP strained-layer multiquantum well lasers

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The sign of the strain in a multiquantum well (MQW) active layer of an InGaAs/InP laser determines whether lasing occurs from the electron–heavy hole transition or from the electron-light hole transition. Lasing from the electron-light hole transition is reported to provide a much better performance than predicted by theory. It is concluded that this gives the best device performance, providing a higher differential gain, a lower threshold current, a record low linewidth enhancement factor of 1.5, and a K factor of 0.22 ns, potentially allowing a 3 dB modulation bandwidth of 40 GHz.