Effects of active layer thickness on Er excitation cross section in GaInP/GaAs:Er,O/GaInP double heterostructure light-emitting diodes

Abstract

We have fabricated GaInP/Er,O-codoped GaAs (GaAs:Er,O)/GaInP double heterostructure light-emitting diodes by organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy and investigated their electroluminescence (EL) properties under forward bias at room temperature. The EL spectrum was dominated by sharp luminescence peaks at around 1.54μm due to an Er–2O center. The effective excitation cross section of Er ions by current injection decreased with increasing active layer thickness. This behavior implies diffusion lengths of injected carriers are much shorter in GaAs:Er,O than in Er-undoped GaAs.