Influence of the growth temperature on the performances of strain-balanced quantum cascade lasers

Abstract

The effect of substrate temperature, during epitaxial growth, on the performances of strain-balanced quantum cascade lasers based on a three quantum well active region and operating at λ≈4.6 μm is presented. Based on a comparison with a density matrix model of these devices, the optimum performances obtained at a growth temperature of 515 °C, are interpreted as arising from a value of the interface roughness correlation length (Λ=85 Å) close to the optimum one computed by the model (Λ=100 Å).