New optical gain mechanism for wide-gap semiconductor laser diodes

Abstract

We have shown that excitonic effects between the band edge states can enhance small optical gain, yield by the transition between the localized state in the energy gap and the continuous state. Since the wide‐gap semiconductors have strong excitonic effects due to the large exciton binding energies, this new mechanism of the optical gain is adequate for the wide‐gap semiconductor laser diodes. This laser diode array might bring us very short wavelength solid‐state laser systems, associated with Ce‐doped glasses.