Theoretical and experimental analysis of 1.3-μm InGaAsN/GaAs lasers

TLDR

The study presents a comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis of 1.3‑µm InGaAsN/GaAs lasers. The authors introduce a 10‑band k·p Hamiltonian to predict transition energies and use it to investigate laser properties of ideal and real InGaAsN/GaAs devices. The analysis reveals that adding nitrogen reduces peak and differential gain at fixed carrier density, but the peak gain versus radiative current density remains largely unchanged; optimal performance is achieved with the minimum nitrogen needed to avoid strain relaxation, and the measured spontaneous emission and gain agree with the model, while threshold current is dominated by defect‑related recombination, suggesting that eliminating these losses could yield laser characteristics comparable to the best InGaAsP/InP lasers with GaAs integration benefits.

Abstract

We present a comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis of 1.3-μm InGaAsN/GaAs lasers. After introducing the 10-band k /spl middot/ p Hamiltonian which predicts transition energies observed experimentally, we employ it to investigate laser properties of ideal and real InGaAsN/GaAs laser devices. Our calculations show that the addition of N reduces the peak gain and differential gain at fixed carrier density, although the gain saturation value and the peak gain as a function of radiative current density are largely unchanged due to the incorporation of N. The gain characteristics are optimized by including the minimum amount of nitrogen necessary to prevent strain relaxation at the given well thickness. The measured spontaneous emission and gain characteristics of real devices are well described by the theoretical model. Our analysis shows that the threshold current is dominated by nonradiative, defect-related recombination. Elimination of these losses would enable laser characteristics comparable with the best InGaAsP/InP-based lasers with the added advantages provided by the GaAs system that are important for vertical integration.