Mid-infrared InAs/GalnSb separate confinement heterostructure laser diode structures

Abstract

Despite recent progress in electronic structure engineering of type-II materials for mid-infrared lasers, suppression of Auger recombination at room temperature has been limited. We present an active region design, consisting of AlAsSb/InAs/GalnSb/InAs/AlAsSb wells separated by an InAs/ AlGaSb superlattice, that overcomes this limitation. The 300 K calculated Auger recombination rate in this structure at the optimal lasing density is five times smaller than typical Shockley-Read-Hall (defect-assisted) recombination rates. An integrated separate confinement heterostructure design suitable for this active region is also described. The separate confinement region, which is a lightly doped InAs/AlGaSb superlattice, provides efficient hole transport and injection into the active region. For an estimated nonactive region modal cavity loss of 20 cm-1 and an optical mode width of 1.3 μm, the calculated internal threshold current density is 100 A/cm2 at 300 K for a single quantum well device. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.