Luke F. Lester

Optical characteristics of 1.24-μm InAs quantum-dot laser diodes

The optical characteristics of the first laser diodes fabricated from a single-InAs quantum-dot layer placed inside a strained InGaAs QW are described. The saturated modal gain for this novel laser active region is found to be 9-10 cm/sup -1/ in the ground state. Room temperature threshold current densities as low as 83 A/cm/sup 2/ for uncoated 1.24-/spl mu/m devices are measured, and operating wavelengths over a 190-nm span are demonstrated.

Room-temperature operation of InAs quantum-dash lasers on InP [001]

The first self-assembled InAs quantum dash lasers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on InP (001) substrates are reported. Pulsed room-temperature operation demonstrates wavelengths from 1.60 to 1.66 μm for one-, three-, and five-stack designs, a threshold current density as low as 410 A/cm2 for singlestack uncoated lasers, and a distinctly quantum-wire-like dependence of the threshold current on the laser cavity orientation. The maximal modal gains for lasing in the ground-state with the cavity perpendicular to the dash direction are determined to be 15 cm–1 for single-stack and 22 cm–1 for five-stack lasers.

Improved device performance of InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells with GaP strain compensation layers

We report optical, electrical, and spectral response characteristics of three-stack InAs∕GaAs quantum dot solar cells with and without GaP strain compensation (SC) layers. The short circuit current density, open circuit voltage, and external quantum efficiency of these cells under air mass 1.5G at 290mW∕cm2 illumination are presented and compared with a GaAs control cell. The cells with SC layers show superior device quality, confirmed by I-V and spectral response measurements. The quantum dot solar cells show an extended photoresponse compared to the GaAs control cell. The effect of the SC layer thickness on device performance is also presented.

GaSb∕GaAs type II quantum dot solar cells for enhanced infrared spectral response

The authors report an enhanced infrared spectral response of GaAs-based solar cells that incorporate type II GaSb quantum dots (QDs) formed using interfacial misfit array growth mode. The material and devices, grown by molecular beam epitaxy, are characterized by current-voltage and spectral response characteristics. From 0.9to1.36μm, these solar cells show significantly more infrared response compared to reference GaAs cells and previously reported InAs QD solar cells. The short circuit current density and open circuit voltages of solar cells with and without dots measured under identical conditions are 1.29mA∕cm2, 0.37V and 1.17mA∕cm2, 0.6V, respectively.

Low-threshold current density 1.3-μm InAs quantum-dot lasers with the dots-in-a-well (DWELL) structure

The wavelength of InAs quantum dots in an In/sub 0.15/Ga/sub 0.85/As quantum-well (DWELL) lasers grown on a GaAs substrate has been extended to 1.3-/spl mu/m. The quantum dot lasing wavelength is sensitive to growth conditions and sample thermal history resulting in blue shifts as much as 73 nm. The room temperature threshold current density is 42.6 A cm/sup -2/ for 7.8-mm cavity length cleaved facet lasers under pulsed operation.

The influence of quantum-well composition on the performance of quantum dot lasers using InAs-InGaAs dots-in-a-well (DWELL) structures

The optical performance of quantum dot lasers with different dots-in-a-well (DWELL) structures is studied as a function of the well number and the indium composition in the InGaAs quantum well (QW) surrounding the dots. While keeping the InAs quantum dot density nearly constant, the internal quantum efficiency /spl eta//sub i/, modal gain, and characteristic temperature of 1-DWELL and 3-DWELL lasers with QW indium compositions from 10 to 20% are analyzed. Comparisons between the DWELL lasers and a conventional In/sub 0.15/Ga/sub 0.85/As strained QW laser are also made. A threshold current density as low as 16 A/cm/sup 2/ is achieved in a 1-DWELL laser, whereas the QW device has a threshold 7.5 times larger. It is found that /spl eta//sub i/ and the modal gain of the DWELL structure are significantly influenced by the quantum-well depth and the number of DWELL layers. The characteristic temperature T/sub 0/ and the maximum modal gain of the ground-state of the DWELL structure are found to improve with increasing indium in the QW It is inferred from the results that the QW around the dots is necessary to improve the DWELL lasers /spl eta//sub i/ for the dot densities studied.

Transition dipole moment of InAs/InGaAs quantum dots from experiments on ultralow-threshold laser diodes

Semiconductor ultralow-threshold InAs quantum-dot lasers are investigated operating at 1230–1250 nm at room temperature (laser threshold range is of 16–83 A/cm2 for ground-state emission). The dependence of gain on current is derived from measurements of the threshold current as a function of the cavity length. The ground-state gain appears at very low current: the inversion threshold of ∼13 A/cm2 is a record low value. Analysis of these data for diodes of different molecular beam epitaxial-grown wafers leads to a squared dipole moment of the transition of ∼9.2×10−57 C2 m2 that corresponds to the length of elementary dipole of ∼0.6 nm.

Microwave performance of a quarter-micrometer gate low-noise pseudomorphic InGaAs/AlGaAs modulation-doped field effect transistor

We report excellent dc and millimeter-wave performance in In0.15Ga0.85As/Al0.15Ga0.85As pseudomorphic modulation-doped field effect transistors (MODFETs) with 0.25-µm-length gates. Extrinsic transconductances as high as 495 mS/mm at 300 K and unprecedented power performance in the 60-GHz range were observed. Although not yet optimized, excellent low noise characteristics, 0.9 dB, with an associated gain of 10.4 dB at 18 GHz, and a noise figure of 2.4 dB with an associated gain of 4.4 dB at 62 GHz were obtained. This is the best noise performance ever reported for a MODFET in this frequency range. These results clearly demonstrate the superiority of pseudomorphic MODFET structures in high-frequency applications.

Passive mode-locking in 1.3 μm two-section InAs quantum dot lasers

Passive mode locking was achieved at 1.3 μm in oxide-confined, two-section, bistable quantum dot (QD) lasers with an integrated intracavity QD saturable absorber. Fully mode-locked pulses at a repetition rate of 7.4 GHz with a duration of 17 ps were observed under appropriate bias conditions. No self-pulsation accompanied the mode locking. These results suggest that a carefully designed QD laser is a candidate for ultrashort pulse generation.

Ground-state emission and gain in ultralow-threshold InAs-InGaAs quantum-dot lasers

Emission spectra and modal optical gain are investigated in ultralow-threshold MBE-grown InAs-InGaAs quantum dot (QD) structures. The record lowest room-temperature inversion current is found to be /spl sim/13 A cm/sup -2/. The rate-equation model is proposed describing the optical gain related to the ground-state (GS) transitions in QDs. The ground-state gain goes to the maximum value that corresponds to the total inversion of available levels. The gain cross section for the GS emission is estimated as /spl sim/7/spl times/10/sup -15/ cm/sup 2/.