ISSN:
1077-3118
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
Systematic study on the effects of the waveguide thickness Wg has been carried out for 200-μm-wide stripe separate-confinement-heterostructure lasers in the range of Wg=0.22–1.2 μm while the width of single quantum well is kept constant at 10 nm. The internal loss αi is reduced from 1.7 to 1 cm−1 when Wg is increased from 0.22 to 1.2 μm. It is shown that αi is not determined by the free-carrier absorption of clad layers, but primarily by Γ, the optical confinement factor, most probably due to scattering at the quantum well/waveguide interfaces. The external differential quantum efficiency ηd monotonically increases with Wg for pulsed operation. By contrast, ηd is maximum at Wg=0.8 μm for continuous-wave (cw) operation. Both the threshold carrier density and the threshold temperature sensitivity increases with Wg for Wg≥0.8 μm, which decreases ηd in cw operation. When 200-μm-wide devices (20%/97% coated) were life tested at 2 W and 30 °C, the median degradation rate shows a minimal value of 3×10−6 h−1 at Wg=0.8 μm, which is 7 times smaller than that at Wg=0.22 μm. The facet temperature measured by the modulation reflectance is also minimized at Wg=0.8 μm. In broad-waveguide lasers with increasing Wg, the increase in carrier overflow competes with the reduction of optical power density, and thus self-absorption in the quantum well, which determines the optimal Wg. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.124845
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