Low threshold current density and high-quantum-efficiency 980-nm cw QW laser

Abstract

Theoretical and experimental investigation of 980nm quantum well ridge waveguide lasers suitable for pumping Er3+ doped fiber amplifiers are carried out. The valence hole subbands, the TE and TM mode optical gains, and the radiative current density of the In0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs/GaAs strained quantum well lasing at 980 nm have been investigated using a 6 by 6 Hamiltonian model. A very low threshold current density is predicted. These theoretical results would be useful for the design and further performance improvements of the ternary InGaAs and quaternary InAlGaAs strained QW laser diodes. Mesa, stripe geometry and ridge waveguide three quantum wells lasers have fabricated from a graded index separate confinement heterostructure grown by molecule beam epitaxy. For a 4 micrometers wide and 1000micrometers long ridge waveguide laser, a cw threshold current of 12.5mA, the threshold current density of 313A/cm2, an external quantum efficiency of 0.31mW/mA and power slope efficiency of 0.37mW/mA per facet were obtained.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.