Design considerations for fabricating highly efficient uncooled semiconductor lasers are discussed. The parameters investigated include the temperature characteristics of threshold current, quantum efficiency, and modulation speed. To prevent carrier overflow under high-temperature operation, the electron confinement energy is increased by using the Al/sub x/Ga/sub y/In/sub 1-x-y/As/InP material system instead of the conventional Ga/sub x/In/sub 1-x/As/sub y/P/sub 1-y//InP material system. To reduce the transparency current and the carrier-density-dependent loss due to the intervalence-band absorption, strained-layer quantum wells are chosen as the active layer. Experimentally, 1.3-/spl mu/m compressive-strained five-quantum-well lasers and tensile-strained three-quantum-well lasers were fabricated using a 3-/spl mu/m wide ridge-waveguide laser structure. For both types of lasers, the intrinsic material parameters are found to be similar in magnitude and in temperature dependence if they are normalized to each well. Specifically, the compressive-strained five-quantum-well lasers show excellent extrinsic temperature characteristics, such as small drop of 0.3 dB in differential quantum efficiency when the heat sink temperature changes from 25 to 100/spl deg/C, and a large small-signal modulation bandwidth of 8.6 GHz at 85/spl deg/C. The maximum 3 dB modulation bandwidth was measured to be 19.6 GHz for compressive-strained lasers and 17 GHz for tensile-strained-lasers by an optical modulation technique. The strong carrier confinement also results in a small k-factor (0.25 ns) which indicates the potential for high-speed modulation up to 35 GHz. In spite of the aluminum-containing active layer, no catastrophic optical damage was observed at room temperature up to 218 mW for compressive-strained five-quantum-well lasers and 103 mW for tensile-strained three-quantum-well lasers. For operating the compressive-strained five-quantum-well lasers at 85/spl deg/C with more than 5 mW output power, a mean-time-to-failure (MTTF) of 9.4 years is projected from a preliminary life test. These lasers are highly attractive for uncooled, potentially low-cost applications in the subscriber loop. >

High-performance uncooled 1.3-/spl mu/m Al/sub x/Ga/sub y/In/sub 1-x-y/As/InP strained-layer quantum-well lasers for subscriber loop applications

The influence of both compressive and tensile strain on semiconductor lasers and optical amplifiers is reevaluated in the light of recent experimental and theoretical work. Strain reduces the three-dimensional symmetry of the lattice and helps match the wave functions of the holes to the one-dimensional symmetry of the laser beam. It can also decrease the density of states at the valence band maximum and so reduce the carrier density required to reach threshold. These two effects appear to adequately explain the TE and TM gain in compressive and tensile structures, including polarization-independent amplifiers, the behavior of visible lasers and the improved frequency characteristics of InGaAs/GaAs lasers. In 1.5 /spl mu/m InGaAsP/InP lasers phonon-assisted Auger recombination appears to remain the dominant current path and can explain why the temperature sensitivity parameter to remains >

Band-structure engineering in strained semiconductor lasers

Fundamental laser diode characeristics single-mode laser diodes basic concepts for tunable laser diodes continuously tunable single-mode laser diodes linewidth broadening discontinuously tunable laser diodes related components.

Tunable Laser Diodes

We present a comprehensive evaluation of the temperature effects on the threshold current and the slope efficiency of 1.55 /spl mu/m Fabry-Perot ridge-waveguide lasers between 20/spl deg/C and 120/spl deg/C. Experimental results are analyzed using the commercial laser simulator PICS3D. The software self-consistently combines two-dimensional carrier transport, heat flux, strained quantum-well gain computation, and optical waveguiding with a longitudinal mode solver. All relevant physical mechanisms are considered, including their dependence on temperature and local carrier density. Careful adjustment of material parameters leads to an excellent agreement between simulation and measurements at all temperatures. At lower temperatures, Auger recombination controls the threshold current and the differential internal efficiency. At high temperatures, the vertical electron leakage from the separate confinement layer mainly limits the laser performance. The increase of internal absorption is less important. However, all these carrier and photon loss enhancements with higher temperature are mainly triggered by the reduction of the optical gain due to wider Fermi spreading of electrons.

Self-consistent analysis of high-temperature effects on strained-layer multiquantum-well InGaAsP-InP lasers

Reduction of internal loss and a twofold increase of differential efficiency have been obtained for 1.5 µm wavelength InGaAsP/InP separate confinement multiquantum well long cavity lasers with broadened waveguides. A record CW output power of 4.6 W has been demonstrated for a laser with a 200 µm aperture.

1.5 [micro sign]m wavelength, SCH-MQW InGaAsP/InP broadened-waveguide laser diodes with low internal loss and high output power

Measurements are reported of intervalence band absorption (IVBA) coefficient k/sub 0/ in three types of active layer structure: bulk, unstrained (MQW) and strained multiquantum wells. The IVBA measurements are performed by observing the spontaneous emission from the uncleaved facets of DCPBH Fabry-Perot lasers. k/sub 0/=(3.7+or-0.3)*10/sup -17/ cm/sup 2/ is obtained for bulk, (1.4+or-0.2)*10/sup -16/ cm/sup 2/ for MQW unstrained and (3.5+or-0.3)*10/sup -17/ cm/sup 2/ for strained MQW structures.

J.L. Beylat

Papers

Intervalence band absorption coefficient measurements in bulk layer, strained and unstrained multiquantum well 1.55 mu m semiconductor lasers