Laterally doped heterostructures for III–N lasing devices

Abstract

To achieve a high-density electron-hole plasma in group-III nitrides for efficient light emission, we propose a planar two-dimensional (2D) p-i-n structure that can be formed in the quantum well layers due to efficient activation of donors and acceptors in the laterally, selectively doped barriers. We show that strongly nonequilibrium 2D electron-hole plasma with density above 1012 cm−2 can be realized in the i region of the laterally biased p-i-n structure, enabling the formation of interband population inversion and stimulated emission from such a lateral current pumped emitter (LACE). We suggest that implementation of the lateral p-i-n structures provides an efficient way of utilizing potential-profile-enhanced doping of superlattices and quantum wells for electric pumping of nitride-based lasers.