Abstract
Strained heterostructures are now widely used to realize high-performance lasers. Highly mismatched epitaxy also produces defect-free quantum dots via an island growth mode. The characteristics of high-speed strained quantum well and quantum dot lasers are described. It is seen that substantial improvements in small-signal modulation bandwidth are obtained in both 1 μm (48 GHz) and 1.55 μm (26 GHz) by tunneling electrons directly into the lasing sub-band. In quantum dots the small-signal modulation bandwidth is limited by electron-hole scattering to ∼7 GHz at room temperature and 23 GHz at 80 K. The properties of these devices are described.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bhattacharya, P., J. Singh, H. Yoon, X. Zhang, A. Gutierrez-Aitken and Y. Lam. ‘Tunneling injection lasers: A new class of lasers with reduced hot carrier effects’. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 32 1620, 1996.
Bimberg, D., N.N. Ledenstov, O. Stier, D. Bimberg, V.M. Ustinov, P.S. Kop'ev and Zh.I. Alferov. ‘InAs-GaAs quantum pyramid lasers: In situ growth, radiative lifetimes and polarization properties’. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 35 1311, 1996.
Bimberg, D., N. Kirstaedter, N.N. Ledenstov, Zh.I. Alferov, P.S. Kop'ev and V.M. Ustinov. ‘InGaAs-GaAs quantum dot lasers’. IEEE J. Select. Topics in Quantum Electron. 3 196, 1997.
Girardin, F., G. Duan, P. Gallion, A. Talneau and A. Qugazzaden. ‘Experimental investigation of the relative importance of carrier heating and spectral-hole-burning on nonlinear gain in bulk and strained multi-quantum-well 1.55 μm lasers’. Appl. Phys. Lett. 67 771, 1995.
Grupen M. and K. Hess. `Severe gain suppression due to dynamic carrier heating in quantum well lasers’. Appl. Phys. Lett. 70 808, 1997.
Kamath, K., P. Bhattacharya, T. Sosnowski, T. Norris and J. Philips. ‘Room temperature operation of In0.4Ga0.6As/GaAs self-organized quantum dot lasers’. Electron. Lett. 32 1374, 1996.
Klotzkin, D., K-C. Syao, P. Bhattacharya, C. Caneau and R. Bhat. ‘Modulation characteristics of high speed (f -3dB = 20 GHz) tunneling injection InP/InGaAsP 1.55 μm ridge waveguide lasers extracted from optical and electrical measurements’. J. Lightwave Technol. 15 2141, 1997.
Matsui, Y., H. Murai, S. Arahira, S. Kutsuzawa and Y. Ogawa. ‘30 GHz bandwidth 1.55 μm strain-compensated InGaAlAs-InGaAsP MQW laser’. IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 9 25, 1997.
Mirin, R., A. Gossard and J. Bowers. ‘Room temperature lasing from InGaAs quantum dots’. Electron. Lett. 32 1732, 1996.
Morton, P.A., R.A. Logan, T. Tanbun-Ek, P.F. Sciortino, Jr., A.M. Sergent, R.K. Montgomery and B.T. Lee. ‘25 GHz bandwidth 1.55 lm GaInAsP p-doped strained multiquantum-well lasers’. Electron. Lett. 28 2156, 1992.
Morton, P.A., T. Tanbun-Ek, R.A. Logan, A.M. Sergent, P.F. Sciortino, Jr. and D.L. Coblentz. ‘Frequency response subtraction for simple measurement of intrinsic laser dynamic properties’. IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 4 133, 1992b.
Ralston, J.D., S. Weisser, I. Esquivias, E.C. Larkins, J. Rosenzweig, P.J. Tasker and J. Fleissner. ‘Control of di.erential gain, nonlinear gain, and damping factor for high-speed application of GaAs-based MQW lasers’. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 29 1648, 1993.
Rideout, W., W.F. Sharfin, E.S. Koteles, M.O. Bassell and B. Elman. ‘Well-barrier hole burning in quantum well lasers’. IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 3 784, 1991.
Schatz, R., O. Kjebon, S. Lourdudoss, S. Nilsson and B. Stalnacke. ‘30 GHz direct modulation bandwidth in detuned loaded InGaAsP DBR lasers at 1.55 lm wavelength’. Electron. Lett. 33 488, 1997.
Shoji, H., Y. Nakara, K. Mukai, Y. Sugiyama, M. Sugawara, N. Yokoyama and H. Ishikawa. ‘Temperature dependent lasing characteristics of multi-stacked quantum dot lasers’. Appl. Phys. Lett. 71 193, 1997.
Sosnowski, T.S., T.B. Norris, H. Jiang, J. Singh, K. Kamath and P. Bhattacharya. ‘Rapid carrier relaxation in In0.4Ga0.6As/GaAs quantum dots characterized by differential transmission spectroscopy’. Phys. Rev. B57 R9423, 1998.
Sung, C.Y., T.B. Norris, X. Zhang, J. Singh and P. Bhattacharya. 'studies of carrier relaxation in low dimensional structures', presented at the Modulated Semiconductor Structures Conference, Spain, July 1995.
Tatham, M.C., I.F. Lealman, Colin P. Seltzer, L.D. Westbrook and D.M. Cooper. ‘Resonance frequency, damping, and di.erential gain in 1.5 μm multiple quantum-well lasers’. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 28 408, 1992.
Tsai, C.-Yi, C.-Yao Tsai, Y.-H. Lo, R.M. Spencer and L.F. Eastman. ‘Nonlinear gain coefficients in semiconductor quantum-well lasers: effects of carrier di.usion, capture, and escape’. J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron. 1 316, 1995.
Uomi, K., T. Mishima and N. Chinone. ‘Modulation-doped multi-quantum well (MD-MQW) lasers. I. Experiment’. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 29 88, 1990.
Weisser, S., J.D. Ralston, E.C. Larkins, I. Esquivias, P.J. Tasker, J. Fleissner and J. Rosenzweig. ‘Efficient high-speed direct modulation in p-doped In0.35Ga0.65As/GaAs multiquantum well lasers’. Electron. Lett. 28 2141, 1992.
Weisser, S., et al. ‘Damping-limited modulation bandwidths up to 40 GHz in undoped short-cavity In0.35Ga0.65As-GaAs multiple-quantum-well lasers’. IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 8 608, 1996.
Yu, R., R. Nagarajan, T. Reynolds, A. Homes, J. Bowers, S. DenBaars and C. Zah. ‘Ultrahigh speed performance of a quantum well laser at cryogenic temperatures’. Appl. Phys. Lett. 65 528, 1994.
Zhao, B., T.R. Chen and A. Yariv. ‘The extra di.erential gain enhancement in multiple-quantum-well lasers’. IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 4 124, 1992.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bhattacharya, P. Quantum well and quantum dot lasers: From strained-layer and self-organized epitaxy to high-performance devices. Optical and Quantum Electronics 32, 211–225 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007065203823
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007065203823