High-speed Quantum-well Lasers Research Articles

A small-signal analysis of the modulation response of high-speed quantum-well lasers: effects of spectral hole burning, carrier heating, and carrier diffusion-capture-escape

We present a small-signal analysis of the modulation response by simultaneously considering the effects of spectral hole burning, carrier heating, and carrier diffusion capture-escape. An explicit form of the small-signal modulation response is obtained and the nonlinear gain coefficients associated with each physical process are defined. Further simplifications in our results will give analytical forms for calculating the resonant frequency and damping rate of the modulation response. One of the simplified versions of our results is shown to agree with previous investigations. The effects of the carrier dephasing time, energy relaxation time, and diffusion-capture-escape times on the high-speed performance of QW lasers are theoretically investigated.

Effects of hot phonons on carrier heating in quantum-well lasers

The hot phonon effects on carrier heating in quantum-well lasers are theoretically investigated. We show that the neglect of the finite lifetime of LO phonons will significantly underestimate the carrier energy relaxation time and thus underestimate the effect of carrier heating in quantum-wed lasers. We investigate the effects of carrier heating with hot phonons on the saturation and degradation of the resonant frequency in high-speed quantum-well lasers. The implications of the hot phonon effects on the design of high-speed quantum-well lasers are also discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A time-domain model for high-speed quantum-well lasers including carrier transport effects

Carrier transport plays an important role and can significantly affect the ultra-fast properties of quantum-well (QW) lasers. We present a detailed multi-mode time-domain large-signal dynamic model including the effects of carrier transport, suitable for the high-speed QW lasers. It is based on the well-proven transmission-line laser modelling technique with the addition of a multilevel system of coupled rate equations. Simulated results from studies of both the static and small-signal properties are compared with measurements from another laboratory. Our model can accurately predict the modulation-bandwidth discontinuity in QW laser structures with large separate-confinement-heterostructure (SCH) regions. We use large-signal simulations to predict increased damping of transient responses and larger turn-on delays caused by the effects of carrier transport. Our large-signal simulations also show that an increase in the turn-on delay times is expected in QW structures with large carrier transport times across the SCH region, whereas the inter-well transport times do not affect the turn-on delay times significantly. >

Nonlinear gain coefficients in semiconductor quantum-well lasers: effects of carrier diffusion, capture, and escape

Effective nonlinear gain coefficients due to the effects of carrier diffusion, capture, and escape are derived from the carrier transport equations. The quantum capture and escape processes between the confined states and the unconfined states are calculated from first principles by evaluating the carrier-polar longitudinal optical phonon interactions. The dc and ac capture times and escape times are derived from evaluating the net capture current of carriers. The differences in capture and escape times between dc and ac operating conditions are numerically investigated. We find that both dc and ac escape times are strongly dependent on the quantum well structure. This differs from the dc and ac capture times that are not sensitive to the quantum well structure. We also find that the dc escape time predicted by the classical thermionic emission theory will no longer be valid for narrow or shallow quantum wells. We show that both dc and ac capture and escape time ratios will increase as the carrier temperature and the carrier density in the quantum well increase. Therefore, we suggest that the possible cause of the resonant frequency degradation and dramatic increase in the damping rate results from the increase of the ac capture to escape time ratio by the effects of carrier heating. Two theoretical models (2N and 3N models) were used to study the effects of carrier diffusion-capture-escape on the modulation response of quantum-well lasers and a distributed model of carrier transport in quantum-well lasers is proposed. Their implications in designing high-speed quantum-well lasers are discussed. >

Carrier energy relaxation time in quantum-well lasers

Carrier energy relaxation via carrier-polar optical phonon interactions with hot phonon effects in multisubband quantum-well structures is theoretically studied by using both bulk longitudinal optical phonons and confined longitudinal optical phonons. We find that the width and the depth of quantum wells only have moderate effects on carrier energy relaxation rates. Our results also indicate that the difference of energy relaxation rates between the quantum well and the bulk material is not significant. We investigate the effects of longitudinal optical phonon lifetimes on the carrier energy relaxation rate. Neglect of the finite decay time of longitudinal optical phonons will significantly underestimate the carrier energy relaxation time; this not only contradicts the experimental results but also severely underestimates the nonlinear gain coefficient due to carrier heating. The implications of our theoretical results in designing high-speed quantum-well lasers are discussed.

Effect of the confinement-layer composition on the internal quantum efficiency and modulation response of quantum-well lasers

The authors show that the transport factor X is related to the internal quantum efficiency eta /sub i/ of the quantum-well laser, and the enhancement in X contributes significantly to a reduction of eta /sub i/. It is also shown that suppression of the thermionic emission of carriers out of the quantum well is essential to prevent the degradation of the effective differential gain in high-speed quantum-well lasers.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Transport limits in high-speed quantum-well lasers: experiment and theory

It is shown experimentally that the modulation bandwidth of quantum well lasers can be reduced by a factor of six due to carrier transport across undoped layers of the laser as in the separate confinement heterostructure (SCH). Analytical expressions are given for the modulation response function, resonance frequency, damping rate and K factor to include carrier transport, and it is shown that carrier transport is responsible for a low-frequency rolloff which limits the modulation response of quantum-well lasers. It also shown that carrier transport leads to a reduction in the effective differential gain, while the gain compression factor remains largely unaffected by it.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

High speed quantum-well lasers and carrier transport effects

Carrier transport can significantly affect the high-speed properties of quantum-well lasers. The authors have developed a model and derived analytical expressions for the modulation response, resonance frequency, damping rate, and K factor to include these effects. They show theoretically and experimentally that carrier transport can lead to significant low-frequency parasitic-like rolloff that reduces the modulation response by as much as a factor of six in quantum-well lasers. They also show that, in addition, it leads to a reduction in the effective differential gain and thus the resonance frequency, while the nonlinear gain compression factor remains largely unaffected by it. The authors present the temperature dependence data for the K factor as further evidence for the effects of carrier transport. >