High-efficiency and low-threshold InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well lasers

Abstract

High-efficiency and low-threshold InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well laser structures have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Material characterization was performed on polyimide-planarized ridge-waveguide lasers. The measured material gain data are compared to theoretical calculations that include the valence-band mixing effects. Total injection current densities of 84 and 60 A/cm2 have been measured from 50-μm-wide laser diodes with cavity lengths of 2850 μm (from a double-quantum-well sample) and 1770 μm (from a single-well sample), respectively. Moreover, we have also obtained a cw threshold current as low as 2.1 mA from a 1.7-μm-wide and 140-μm-long as-cleaved ridge-waveguide device. In addition, the lateral current leakage for the double-quantum-well sample is found to be twice that of the single-well one.