Martin Stattin

Engineering the Lateral Optical Guiding in Gallium Nitride-Based Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser Cavities to Reach the Lowest Threshold Gain

In order to improve the current injection in GaN-based blue vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) a dielectric aperture is generally used in combination with an indium–tin-oxide (ITO) layer on the top intracavity p-contact layer. The most straightforward way to realize this introduces a depression of the structure near the optical axis and we show, by using a two-dimensional (2D) effective index method and a three-dimensional (3D) coupled-cavity beam propagation method, that this typically results in optically anti-guided structures with associated high optical losses and thus very high threshold gains. Remarkably, the threshold gain reduces with increased negative guiding, which is due to improved lateral confinement and reduction of lateral leakage. Still, moderately positively guided designs should be preferred to avoid the detrimental effect of lateral leakage and high diffraction loss. To ensure positive index guiding, we propose to planarize the structure or introduce an elevation near the optical axis by additional processing, with an associated reduction in threshold material gain from 6000 to 2000 cm-1 for the studied structures.

Analysis of structurally sensitive loss in GaN-based VCSEL cavities and its effect on modal discrimination

Lateral loss causes optical energy to leave the laser cavity in the transverse, lateral, direction, and is sometimes neglected to simplify the numerical simulations. However, in contrast to outcoupling and absorption losses, we show that the lateral loss can change drastically with only nanometer-sized changes of the cavity structure, from being virtually zero to becoming the major source of cavity loss, since the cavity becomes antiguiding. This can be explained as the opening of a channel of efficient resonant lateral leakage of optical power at a certain oblique propagation angle. A number of different realizations of current apertures and top mirror designs in GaN-based VCSEL cavities, which have been suggested for realization of microcavity lasers emitting in the blue wavelength range, are simulated. Many of these are shown to lead to unintentional antiguiding, which can more than double the threshold gain for lasing. Notably, for strong enough antiguiding the resonant lateral leakage decreases so that the threshold gain values might again be tolerable. This regime has been suggested for robust single-mode operation since earlier predictions, building on analogies with slab waveguides, hinted at a very strong suppression of higher order modes. However, our simulations indicate that for the VCSEL cavities the derived formulas grossly overestimate the modal discrimination.

Temperature stability of intersubband transitions in AlN/GaN quantum wells

Temperature dependence of intersubband transitions in AlN/GaN multiple quantum wells grown with molecular beam epitaxy is investigated both by absorption studies at different temperatures and modeling of conduction-band electrons. For the absorption study, the sample is heated in increments up to 400 degrees C. The self-consistent Schroumldinger-Poisson modeling includes temperature effects of the band gap and the influence of thermal expansion on the piezoelectric field. We find that the intersubband absorption energy decreases only by similar to 6 meV at 400 degrees C relative to its room temperature value.

Metal-Free Graphene as Transparent Electrode for GaN-Based Light-Emitters

Graphene contacts to p-GaN are considered as an alternative to indium–tin-oxide transparent electrodes in GaN based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). Contact properties were investigated on light-emitting diode and p-GaN test structures, where dielectric apertures were used to eliminate the influence of the metal pads used to bias the contacts. Using single layer graphene we were able to operate light emitting diodes with current densities of 300 A/cm2. Addition of a second layer of graphene increased the maximum bias current to 1 kA/cm2. However, the contacts are non-linear and cannot withstand high current densities for a long time. The results are promising but further investigation and improvement is needed for graphene to be a viable alternative to indium–tin-oxide for blue VCSELs.

Progress and challenges in electrically pumped GaN-based VCSELs

ABSTRACT The Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) is an established optical source in short-distance optical communication links, computer mice and tailored infrared power heating systems. Its low power consumption, easy integration into two-dimensional arrays, and low-cost manufacturing also make this type of semiconductor laser suitable for application in areas such as high-resolution printing, medical applications, and general lighting. However, these applications require emission wavelengths in the blue-UV instead of the established infrared regime, which can be achieved by using GaN-based instead of GaAs-based materials. The development of GaN-based VCSELs is challenging, but during recent years several groups have managed to demonstrate electrically pumped GaN-based VCSELs with close to 1 mW of optical output power and threshold current densities between 3-16 kA/cm2. The performance is limited by challenges such as achieving high-reflectivity mirrors, vertical and lateral carrier confinement, efficient lateral current spreading, accurate cavity length control and lateral optical mode confinement. This paper summarizes different strategies to solve these issues in electrically pumped GaN-VCSELs together with state-of-the-art results. We will highlight our work on combined transverse current and optical mode confinement, where we show that many structures used for current confinement result in unintentionally optically anti-guided resonators. Such resonators can have a very high optical loss, which easily doubles the threshold gain for lasing. We will also present an alternative to the use of distributed Bragg reflectors as high-reflectivity mirrors, namely TiO2/air high contrast gratings (HCGs). Fabricated HCGs of this type show a high reflectivity (>95%) over a 25 nm wavelength span.

Triggering of guiding and antiguiding effects in GaN-based VCSELs

We show numerically that many recently proposed GaN-based VCSEL cavities, with DBR mirrors deposited onto the current aperture, balance dangerously close to the border between the guided and antiguided regime. A guided cavity is often preferred because of its lower optical loss, but a strongly antiguided cavity offers built-in modal discrimination favoring single fundamental mode operation. We show that very small changes in the VCSEL structure are sufficient to strongly change the guiding character of the VCSEL cavity, and that thermal lensing caused by device self-heating under operation can dramatically reduce the optical loss but not the modal discrimination in the antiguided cavities.

ZnO/AlN Clad Waveguides for AlGaN-Based Quantum Cascade Lasers

Waveguide designs for AlGaN-based near-infrared quantum cascade lasers are proposed and analyzed using optical mode solvers. Because of the poor electrical conductivity, AlN is not a suitable cladding material for the AlN/GaN/AlGaN gain region. Instead we propose the use of ZnO as a conductive top cladding and to embed the gain region between AlGaN current injection and extraction regions so that an AlN substrate can be used as the lower cladding. We also examine the use of an AlN template on a SiC substrate and find that it can also provide sufficient mode confinement with negligible radiation loss into the SiC substrate. We identify a single mode ridge waveguide design with reasonable mode confinement (40%) and loss (39 cm-1).

Design and Fabrication of AlN/GaN Heterostructures for Intersubband Technology

We have used models based on the effective-mass approximation and Schrodinger-Poisson to design AlN/GaN multiple quantum well structures for intersubband transitions between two or three energy levels. The structures were realized by molecular beam epitaxy and the surface morphology and structural quality were investigated. We also investigated GaN waveguides that were fabricated using standard cleanroom techniques. Our work is focused on the various challenges associated to the fabrication of quantum cascade lasers based on group III-nitrides. These challenges are discussed in the light of our results.

Effect of compositional interlayers on the vertical electrical conductivity of Si-doped AlN/GaN distributed Bragg reflectors grown on SiC

We have investigated the effect of strain-compensating interlayers on the vertical electrical conductivity of Si-doped AlN/GaN distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). Samples with 10.5 mirror pairs were grown through plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on SiC. Room-temperature current–voltage characteristics were measured vertically in mesas through 8 of the 10.5 pairs. The sample with no interlayers yields a mean specific series resistance of 0.044 Ω cm2 at low current densities, while three samples with 5/5-A-thick, 2/2-nm-thick, and graded interlayers have resistivities between 0.16 and 0.34 Ω cm2. Thus, interlayers impair vertical current transport, and they must be designed carefully when developing conductive DBRs.