Dilute Nitride Quantum Well Lasers by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

We present and review the physics and device characteristics of highperformance strain-compensated metalorganic chemical vapor deposition grown 1,200 nm GaInAs and 1,300–1,400nm GaInNAs quantum well lasers. Utilizing the GaAsP barriers surrounding the highly strained GaInNAs quantum well active regions, high-performance quantum well lasers have been realized from 1,170 nm up to 1,400 nm wavelength regimes. The design of the GaInNAs quantum well active region utilizes an In-content of approximately 40%, which requires only approximately 0.5–1% N-content to realize emission wavelengths up to 1,300–1,410nm. Threshold current densities of only 65–90Acm−2 were realized for GaInAs quantum well lasers, with emission wavelength of 1,170–1,233nm. Room temperature threshold and transparency current densities of 210 and 75–80Acm−2, respectively, have been realized for 1,300nm GaInNAs quantum well lasers. Despite the utilization of the highly strained GaInNAs quantum well, multiple quantum wells lasers have been realized with excellent lasing performance. Methods to extend the lasing emission wavelength up to 1,400 nm with GaInNAs quantum-well lasers are also presented. Theoretical analysis and experiments also show suppression of thermionic carrier leakages in GaInNAs quantum-well systems lead to high performance lasers operating at high temperature. Approaches based on dilute nitride quantum-wells to extend the emission wavelength up to 1,550nm on GaAs substrate will also be discussed.