Dilute bismide alloys grown on GaAs and InP substrates for improved near- and mid-infrared semiconductor lasers

摘要

We present an analysis of dilute bismide quantum well (QW) lasers grown on GaAs and InP substrates. Our theoretical analysis is based upon a 12-band kp Hamiltonian which directly incorporates the strong impact of Bi incorporation on the band structure using a band-anticrossing approach. For GaBiAs QWs grown on GaAs we analyse the device performance as a function of Bi composition, and quantify the potential to use GaBiAs alloys to realise highly efficient, temperature stable 1.55 m lasers. We compare our calculations to measured spontaneous emission (SE) and gain spectra for first-generation GaBiAs lasers and demonstrate quantitative agreement between theory and experiment. We also present a theoretical analysis of InGaBiAs alloys grown on InP substrates. We show that this material system is well suited to the development of mid-infrared lasers, and offers the potential to realise highly efficient InP-based diode lasers incorporating type-I QWs and emitting at 3 m. We quantify the theoretical performance of this new class of mid-infrared lasers, and identify optimised structures for emission across the application-rich 3 – 5 m wavelength range. Our results highlight and quantify the potential of dilute bismide alloys to overcome several limitations associated with existing GaAsand InP-based near- and mid-infrared laser technologies.