Carrier distribution, spontaneous emission, and gain in self-assembled quantum dot lasers

Peter M. Smowton; Emma J. Pearce; Julie Lutti; Daniel R. Matthews; Huw D. Summers; Gareth M. Lewis; Peter Blood; Mark Hopkinson; Andrey Krysa

doi:10.1117/12.530429

11 May 2004 Carrier distribution, spontaneous emission, and gain in self-assembled quantum dot lasers

Peter M. Smowton, Emma J. Pearce, Julie Lutti, Daniel R. Matthews, Huw D. Summers, Gareth M. Lewis, Peter Blood, Mark Hopkinson, Andrey Krysa

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5365, Novel In-Plane Semiconductor Lasers III; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.530429
Event: Integrated Optoelectronic Devices 2004, 2004, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

We examine the mechanisms that lead to a low value of saturated modal gain in both 1μm emitting InGaAs based and ≈ 700nm emitting InP/GaInP quantum dot laser systems. We explain the observation that the value of the saturated modal gain increases as the temperature decreases using a simple model of the filling of the available dot and wetting layer states according to a Fermi-Dirac distribution. We show that it is the relatively large number of available wetting layer valence states and their proximity in energy to the dot states that limits the modal gain. We measure the population inversion factor for samples containing different numbers of layers of dots and for samples where the dots are grown in a quantum well (DWELL) and for dots grown in bulk layers of either GaAs or Al_0.15Ga_0.85As (non-DWELL). Comparison of this data with that calculated for a Fermi-Dirac distribution of carriers in the available states demonstrates that for most of the samples the carriers in the ground states of the quantum dots are not in thermal equilibrium with those in higher lying energy states - the excited states or wetting layer.

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Peter M. Smowton, Emma J. Pearce, Julie Lutti, Daniel R. Matthews, Huw D. Summers, Gareth M. Lewis, Peter Blood, Mark Hopkinson, and Andrey Krysa "Carrier distribution, spontaneous emission, and gain in self-assembled quantum dot lasers", Proc. SPIE 5365, Novel In-Plane Semiconductor Lasers III, (11 May 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.530429

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