Tunable piezoelectric semiconductor laser controlled by the carrier injection level

Abstract

We propose a tunable laser diode based on a piezoelectric heterostructure. The tuning mechanism consists of modulating the gain spectrum during lasing by the quantum-confined Stark effect. The modulating electric field is produced by carrier separation in the active region, and its amplitude depends on the injected carrier density. In a proof-of-principle photopumped experiment, we were able to generate a space-charge field of 20 kV/cm which shifted the lasing wavelength by more than 3 nm in the 800 nm spectral region.