Abstract
Many of the attractions of quantum wells in lasers derive from the properties of the density of states function of the two-dimensional electron system. The abrupt edge of the density of states as a function of energy provides a very high differential gain above transparency leading to significant reductions in threshold current in appropriately designed devices compared with their bulk counterparts. The effective density of states of a two-dimensional system has a linear dependence upon temperature which leads directly to an intrinsic linear temperature dependence of threshold current compared with the stronger “three-halves” dependence of a bulk material. Because of the benefits of these characteristics of the two-dimensional system, much of the modelling of quantum well lasers has understandably concentrated on the intrinsic gain-current characteristic of the quantum well active region. These calculations usually use an ideal, square, potential well and extrinsic non-radiative currents are neglected. In devices operating at wavelengths below about 1µm, where intrinsic Auger recombination is negligible, this approach has been reasonably successful in predicting trends in the room temperature threshold current with respect to parameters such as well width or cavity length. This is particularly true for the GaAs/A1GaAs material system which can be grown free of significant concentrations of non-radiative recombination centres.
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Blood, P. et al. (1998). Modelling Quantum Well Laser Diode Structures. In: Balkanski, M., Andreev, N. (eds) Advanced Electronic Technologies and Systems Based on Low-Dimensional Quantum Devices. NATO ASI Series, vol 42. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8965-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8965-9_2
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