Suppression of carrier leakage in 4.8 &#956;m - emitting quantum cascade lasers

D. Botez; J. C. Shin; L. J. Mawst; I. Vurgaftman; J. R. Meyer; S. Kumar

doi:10.1117/12.842593

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12 February 2010 Suppression of carrier leakage in 4.8 μm - emitting quantum cascade lasers

D. Botez, J. C. Shin, L. J. Mawst, I. Vurgaftman, J. R. Meyer, S. Kumar

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Proceedings Volume 7616, Novel In-Plane Semiconductor Lasers IX; 76160N (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.842593
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2010, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

In this work we show that by using both deep quantum wells and tall barriers in the active regions of quantum cascade (QC)-laser structures and by tapering the conduction-band edge of both injector an extractor regions one can significantly reduce the leakage of the injected carriers. Threshold-current, J_th and differential-quantum efficiency, η_d characteristic temperatures, T₀ and T₁, values as high as 278 K and 285 K are obtained to 90 °C heatsink temperature, which means that J_th and η_d vary ~ 2.5 slower over the 20-90 °C temperature range than in conventional QC devices. Modified equations for J_thand η_d are derived. In particular, the equation for η_d includes, for the first time, its dependence on heatsink temperature. A model for the thermal excitation of injected carriers from the upper lasing level to upper active-region energy states from where they relax to lower active-region energy states or get scattered to the upper Γ miniband is employed to estimate carrier leakage. Good agreement with experiment is obtained for both conventional QC lasers and deep-well (DW)-QC lasers.

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D. Botez, J. C. Shin, L. J. Mawst, I. Vurgaftman, J. R. Meyer, and S. Kumar "Suppression of carrier leakage in 4.8 μm - emitting quantum cascade lasers", Proc. SPIE 7616, Novel In-Plane Semiconductor Lasers IX, 76160N (12 February 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.842593

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