Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2963173
CITATIONS READS
43 20
7 authors, including:
H. Morko
Virginia Commonwealth University
1,439 PUBLICATIONS 42,527 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, Available from: H. Morko
letting you access and read them immediately. Retrieved on: 18 September 2016
IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 7, JULY 1990 1183
Abstract-Strained layer InGaAs-GaAs single-quantum-well buried 0.75 mA (for a coated laser), and a 3 dB bandwidth of
heterostructure lasers were fabricated by a hybrid molecular beam 7.6 GHz were achieved. A systematic study of the device
epitaxy and liquid phase epitaxy technique. Very low threshold cur-
rents, 2.4 mA for an uncoated laser ( L = 425 pm) and 0.75 mA for a performance and some related material properties are pre-
-
coated laser ( R 0.9, L = 198 pm), were obtained. A 3 dB modulation sented.
bandwidth of 7.6 GHz was demonstrated at low bias current (14 mA). In Section 11, we introduce the procedures for material
preparation and device fabrication. The performance of
the lasers is summarized in Section 111. In Section IV, we
I. INTRODUCTION describe the effect of dielectrical coating on the laser per-
formance. The high-frequency direct current modulation
I nGaAs-GaAs strained layer quantum-well lasers have
been the subject of considerable recent interest [1]-[8].
The strained layer structure offers a new degree of free-
results are presented in Section V.
//
h l = 1.006 pm
h2 = 1.184 pm
1 GRIN SCH SQW
structure
,B:AIG.XAS,
n *-GaAs substrate
c n+-GaAssubstrate
AI content in Ga,.$l,As
old currents ( Zth) along with their respective cavity lengths
0.0 0.5 ( L ) are listed in Table I. It can be seen from the table that
Fig. 2 . A schematic of the GRINSCH-SQW-STL InGaAs material the lowest threshold current obtained is 2.4 mA for a laser
of cavity length 425 pm. To the best of our knowledge,
this is the lowest figure ever reported to date for this ma-
wafer was then cleaned and the top GaAs cap layer was terial system and is also among the best results for un-
removed immediately prior to loading the wafer into an coated semiconductor lasers. The lowest threshold current
LPE system for regrowth. The regrowth temperature was density was 120 A/cm* for a 3976 pm long laser. Con-
800C. A p-Alo,4Gao.6Aslayer and an n-Alo,4Gao.6Aslayer sidering that this value is deduced from a BH laser, which
were grown successively to form a blocking junction. may introduce additional carrier and optical losses com-
After the second regrowth, the wafer was processed into paring with broad area lasers, we expected even lower
BH lasers, using conventional fabrication techniques. The threshold current densities for broad area lasers. Indeed,
processes include thermal deposition of S O 2 , photo- a threshold current density of 114 mA/cm2 was measured
lithography for a stripe contact opening, shallow Zn-dif- for a - 1540 pm long, 100 pm wide broad contact
fusion, contact metalization, and annealing. The Zn-dif- GRINSCH-SQW-STL laser.
fusion is an important step to improve the ohmic contact The lasing wavelength for the uncoated device is about
and reduce contact resistance as we do not have a heavily- 0.93 pm (for a cavity length of = 250 pm). Photographs
doped GaAs cap layer on the top of the device. A sche- of the spectra are shown in Fig. 4. The spectra shown
matic of the finished device is shown in Fig. 3. were obtained from the same laser with different mirror
reflectivities. The reason for the lasing wavelength shift
111. PERFORMANCE OF THE LASERS
will be discussed later in Section IV-C. The lasing wave-
A . Threshold, Spectrum and Far Field length also depends on the cavity length. It becomes
To test the performance of the lasers, the wafer was longer for longer cavity length. For a 1540 pm long broad-
subsequently cleaved into laser bars of various cavity area laser, a lasing wavelength of 0.99 pm was measured.
lengths. The laser chips were mounted on Cu blocks for The laser is capable of delivering an optical power in ex-
CW operation. Light versus current (L-Z ) characteristics cess of 80 mW under pulsed operation (for a laser of 1676
were measured under CW conditions and very low thresh- pm cavity length). The L-Z curve of this laser is shown in
old currents were observed. Some of the measured thresh- Fig. 5.
-
CHEN et U/.: STRAINED LAYER QUANTUM-WELL LASER 1185
80
70
60
50
L
a
3
0
a
- 40
2
.-
c
8
30
20
10
Wavelength (p) 0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Injection Current (mA)
Fig. 4. Emission spectra of InGaAs-GaAs laser ( L = 250 pin. signal
power level is about 5 m W ) . Top: for mirror reflectivity R , = RZ = 0.3. Fig. 5. L-I characteristic of an InGaAs-GaAs SQW laser, showing an
Bottom: for mirror reflectivity R , = 0.3, Rz = 0.9. output power of 80 mW.
B. qd - L Relation
The external quantum efficiency of the BH InGaAs-
where Jthis the threshold current density, Jo is the trans- GaAs SQW laser was measured under CW conditions. The
parency current density, CY, is the internal optical loss fac. best results obtained so far are 0.47 mW /mA Der facet
1186 IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 7, JULY 1990
a 0.5-
E
2- ,.. . i.. !
... . ..
. I
. .. .. .
. I
2 0 4 -
..... . .. .
C # .
._
r
0
. .
0.3 -
5
5
gm 02- ..
I .
E
e 0.1 -
I I I I I I I I
0 100200300400500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Cavity Length L (pm)
Fig. 8. External quantum efficiency as a function of cavity length
Cavity Length (p)
as 1000 pm, the mirror loss is still larger than the internal
propagation loss. Also seen is for L = 250 pm and ai= 0.3 I 0.3 I 3.8 I 0.37 I 0.925
3 198 09 I 03 I 23 1 071 10947
3 cm-I, R I and R2 must be higher than 0.95 in order for
the threshold to be dominated by the internal loss. The
conclusion is that due to the very low internal loss, high-
reflectivity coating will reduce the threshold current sub-
stantially even in long cavity lasers. However, in order
to take full advantage of the low loss to reach ultra-
low threshold, short cavity lasers are preferable
( L < 100 pm, e.g., ). In this case, the mirror reflectivities
of R > 0.95 or even higher should be used.
Different coatings were applied to lasers with different
lengths. In all cases, high reflectivity coatings led to a
reduction of the threshold current. Some of the typical
results are listed in Table 111. The L-I curves for laser #3
are presented in Fig. 10. The laser was 198 pm long. The
threshold current was 3.8 mA with uncoated facets. After
the mirrors were coated to R = 0.9, a threshold current
as low as 0.75 mA was obtained.
B. Coating and External Quantum E@ciency
A very important consequence of the low internal loss
is a weak dependence of the external quantum efficiency
on the mirror reflectivities. For different ai values, the
dependence of q d on R ( = R I = R 2 ) with constant q i is
depicted in Fig. 11. It is clear that for larger a i L , e.g., ai
= 40 cm-I and L = 200 pm, q d drops very fast when the
mirror reflectivity increases. However, for small aiL,q d
does not change considerably even when R increases from
0.3 to 0.9. Therefore, the very low internal loss of the
InGaAs-GaAs laser makes it possible to produce sub-
milliamp lasers by using high-reflectivity coating and at
the same time to maintain reasonably-high external quan-
tum efficiencies and appreciable output powers.
The experimental data are consistent with the calcu-
lated results depicted in Fig. 11. Some of the measured
q d for lasers with different coatings are presented in Table Fig. 10. L-Z characteristic of a low threshold InGaAs-GaAs laser ( L =
111. 198 p m ) with different mirror reflectivities R , , R2.
1188 IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26. NO. 7, JULY 1990
Fig. 12. Schematic gain spectra at threshold for different mirror reflectiv- VI. CONCLUSION
ities, showing different lasing wavelengths. In conclusion, strained layer InGaAs-GaAs GRINSCH
SQW lasers were fabricated by a hybrid MBE and LPE
techniques. Very low threshold currents, 2.4 mA for the
C. Lasing Wavelengths as a Function of Mirror uncoated laser ( L = 425 pm) and 0.75mA for the coated
Reflectivities laser ( L = 198 pm), were obtained. The lasing wave-
The control of mirror reflectivity has been found to be
length was - 0.93 pm for uncoated lasers. External
quantum efficiency as high as 0.52 mW/mA per facet
an effective way to tune the lasing wavelength of semi-
conductor lasers [23].The physical mechanism for wave-
(L - 300 p m ) and an output power of over 80 mW
( L = 1.68mm) were observed. A modulation bandwidth
length tuning by mirror coating is as follows. Facet coat- of 7.6 GHz was demonstrated at low bias current. The
ings determine the effective distributed mirror loss 1/ L In very low internal loss of the laser results in a weak de-
1/R of the laser and thus the threshold modal gain [see pendence of I t h and qd on the cavity length (for not very
(3)].In semiconductor lasers, the gain spectrum has a short cavity lasers) and a weak dependence of q d and out-
nonsymmetric feature. Shown in Fig. 12 are two gain put power on the mirror reflectivity. It also offers an ef-
spectra at threshold corresponding to different mirror re- fective way to tune the threshold current and lasting
flectivities R' > RI'. The threshold gain g t h ( R ' ) is smaller wavelength by facet coating. Because of these features
than g t h ( R " ). Therefore the corresponding lasing wave- this laser is attractive for applications which require a
length A' is longer than A". It is obvious that the change combination of low threshold, high speed, high quantum
in threshold gain and thus the lasing wavelength will be efficiency, and reasonable output powers.
more pronounced if the internal loss aiis smaller, assum-
ing the same amount of change in mirror reflectivities. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This is exactly the case in the present InGaAs-GaAs la- T . R. Chen would like to thank J. Paslaski for helpful
sers. Some of the measured wavelengths of lasers with discussions on high-frequency modulation. The authors
different coatings can be found in Table 111. It was noted are also grateful to D. Armstrong for his help in many
that by changing the mirrors' reflectivity R from 0.3 to ways during the LPE growth process.
0.9,lasing wavelength y a s changed from -
0.92 to
- 0.96pm (AA = 400 A ). This variation is much more REFERENCES
pronynced than in conventional InP lasers (AA = [ l ] M. D. Camras, J . M . Brown, N . Holonyak, J r . , M. A . Nixon,
150 A ) [23]. R. W. Kaliski, M. J . Ludowise, W. T. Dietze, and C. R. Lewis,
1189
t
l2
1 = 1.5 mA
Ith
0.045 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0.045 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
-,Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)
(a) (b)
Fig. 13(a). Frequency response of a low threshold InGaAs-GaAs laser, showing comer frequencyf, = 1.8 GHz at a bias current I = 2 . 3 mA. Cavity
length L = 200 pm, threshold current I,, = 1.3 mA, and mirror reflectivities R , = Rz = 0.8. (b) Frequency response of a low threshold InGaAs-
GaAs laser, showing 3 dB bandwidthf, = 7.6 GHz at a bias current I = 14 mA.
Stimulated emission in strained-layer quantum well heterostruc- [16] W . Stutius, P. Gavrilovic, J . E . Williams, K. Meehan, and J . H .
tures, J . Appl. Phys., vol. 54, pp. 6183-6189, 1983. Zarrabi, Continuous operation of high-power (200 m W ) stained-
[2] N. G. Anderson, Y. C . Lo, and R. M. Kolbas, High-efficiency car- layer Ga, ,In,As/GaAs quantum well lasers with emission wave-
~
rier collection and stimulated emission in thin (50 A ) pseudomorphic length: 0.87 pm s X s 0.95 pm, Electron. L e t t . , vol. 24, no. 24,
In,Ga, ,As quantum wells, Appl. Phys. L e t t . , vol. 49, pp. 758- pp. 1493-1494, 1988.
760, 1986. [I71 S . E. Fischer, R. G. Waters, D. Fekete, J . M . Ballantyne, Y. C.
[3] W . D. Laidig, P. J . Caldwell, Y. F. Lin, and C . K. Peng, Strained- Chen, and B. A. Saltz, Long-lived InGaAs quantum well lasers,
layer quantum-well injection laser, Appl. Phys.Lett., vol. 44, pp. Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 54, pp. 1861-1862, 1989.
653-655, 1984. [18] P. W . A. McIlroy, A. Kurobe, and Y. Uematsu, Analysis applica-
[4] W . D. Laidig, Y. F . Lin, and P. J . Caldwell, Properties of tion of theoretical gain curves to the design of multi-quantum-well
In,Ga, As-GaAs strained-layer quantum-well-heterostructure in-
~ ~ lasers, IEEE J . Quantum Electron., vol. QE-21, pp. 1958-1963,
jection lasers, J . Appl. P h y s . , vol. 57, pp. 33-38, 1985. 1985.
[ 5 ] D. Feketa, K. T . Chan, J . M. Ballantyne, and L. F. Eastman, 1191 R. I . Taylor, R. A. Abram, M. G. Burt, and C . Smith, Auger re-
Graded-index separate-confinement InGaAs/GaAs strained-layer combination in a quantum-well-heterostructure laser, Proc. IEEE,
quantum well grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, vol. 132, Pt. J , pp. 364-370, 1985.
Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 49, pp. 1659-1660, 1986. [20] A. Sugimura, Threshold currents for AlGaAs quantum well lasers,
[6] S . E. Fischer, D. Fekete, G. B. Feak, and J . M. Ballantyne, Ridge IEEE J . Quantum Electron., vol. QE-20, pp. 336-343, 1984.
waveguide injection laser with a GaInAs strained-layer quantum well [21] C. M. Wu and E. S . Yang, Physical mechanisms of carrier leakage
( X = 1 p m ) , Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 50, pp. 714-716, 1987. in DH injection lasers, J . Appl. P h y s . , vol. 49, pp. 3114-3117,
[7] Y. J . Yang, K. Y. Hsieh, and R. M. Kolbas, Continuous room- 1978.
temperature operation of an InGaAs-GaAs-AIGaAs strained layer 1221 H. C . Casey Jr. and M . B. Panish, Heterostructure Lasers, part A:
laser, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 51, pp. 215-217, 1987. Fundamental Principles, Orlando, FL: Academic Press. 1978.
[8] R. M. Kolbas, N . G. Anderson, W . D. Laidig, Y. Sin, Y. C . Hsieh, [23] T . R. Chen, Y. H. Zhuang, P. L . D e n y , and A. Yariv, The appli-
and Y. J . Yang, Strained-layer InGaAs-GaAs-AIGaAs photo- cation of dielectrical coating to semiconductor lasers, unpublished.
pumped and current injection lasers, IEEE J . Quantum Electron., [24] P. L. Deny, T . R. Chen, Y. H . Zhuang, J . Paslaski, M. Mittelstein,
vol. 24, pp. 1605-1613, 1988. K. Vahala, A. Yariv, K. Y . Lau, N. Bar-Chaim, Properties of ultra
[9] A. R. Adams, Band-structure engineering for low-threshold high- low threshold single quantum well (AI, Ga)As lasers for computer
efficiency semiconductor lasers, Electron Lert., vol. 22, no. 5 , pp. interconnects, Optoelectronics-Devices and Technol. , vol. 3, no.
249-250, 1986. 2 , pp. 117-130, 1988.
[ l o ] E. Yablonovitch and E. 0. Kane, Reduction of lasing threshold cur-
rent density by lowering of valence band effective mass, J . Light-
wave Technol., vol. LT-4, pp. 504-506, 1986. T. R. Chen, photograph and biography not available at the time of publi-
[ I l l I . Suemune, L. A. Coldren, M. Yamanishi, and Y . Kan, Extremely cation.
wide modulation bandwidth in a low threshold current strained quan-
tum well laser, Appl. Phys. L e f t . , vol. 53, no. 15, pp. 1378-1380,
1988. L. Eng, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
[12] T. C . Chong and C . G. Fonstad, Theoretical gain of strained-layer
semiconductor lasers in the large strain regime, IEEE J . Quantum B. Zhao, photograph and biography not available at the time of publica-
Electron., vol. 25, pp. 171-178, 1989. tion.
[13] E. P. OReilly, Valence band engineering is strained-layer struc-
ture, Semicond. Sci. Technol., vol. 4 , pp. 121-137, 1989.
[I41 S . D. Offsey, W. J . Schaff, P. J . Tasker, H . Ennen, and L. F. East- Y. H. Zhuang, photograph and biography not available at the time of pub-
man, Strained-layer InGaAs-GaAs-AIGaAs graded-index separate lication.
confinement heterostructure single quantum well lasers grown by mo-
lecular beam epitaxy, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 54, pp. 2527-2529,
S. Sanders, photograph and biography not available at the time of publi-
1989.
cation.
1151 P. K. York, K. J . Beernink, G. E. Fernandez, and J . J . Coldren,
InGaAs-GaAs stained layer quantum well buried heterostructure la-
sers ( A > 1 p n ) by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, Appl. H. Morkoc (S72-M76-SM79-F87), photograph and biography not
Phys. L e t t . , vol. 54, pp. 499-501, 1989. available at the time of publication.
1190 IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 7. JULY 1990
Amnon Yariv (S56-M59-F70), a native of Is- semiconductor based integrated optics technology, and in pioneering the
rael, obtained the B . S . , M.S., and Ph.D. degrees field of phase conjugate optics. His present research efforts are in the areas
in electrical engineering from the University of of nonlinear optics, semiconductor lasers, and integrated optics. He has
California, Berkeley, in 1954, 1956, and 1958, published widely in the laser and optics fields some 300 papers and has
respectively. written a number of basic texts in quantum electronics, optics, and quantum
He joined Bell Telephone Laboratories, Mur- mechanics. He is also a founder and chairman-of-the-board of the Ortel
ray Hill, NJ, in 1959, at the early stages of the Corp., Alhambra, CA.
laser effort. He came to the California Institute of Dr. Yariv is a member of the American Physical Society, Phi Beta
Technology, Pasadena, in 1964 as a Associate Kappa, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National
Professor of Electrical Engineering, becoming a Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.
Professor in 1966. In 1980 he become the Thomas He received the 1980 Quantum Electronics Award of the IEEE, the 1985
G . Myers Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics. On the University of Pennsylvania Pender Award, and the 1986 Optical Society
technical side, he took part (with various co-workers) in the discovery of of America Ives Medal.
a number of early solid-state laser systems, in proposing and demonstrating