Semiconductor lasers with nonidentical InGaAsP/InP multiple quantum wells for optical communication are experimented to show the improved temperature characteristics. We explore the dependence of carrier distribution on temperature and discover the novel temperature characteristics of semiconductor lasers with nonidentical multiple quantum wells, which are different from conventional ones with identical multiple quantum wells. The origin is due to the strongly temperature-dependent Fermi-Dirac distribution, which favors carriers in high-energy states at high temperature. As a result, carriers redistribute among those quantum wells as temperature varies. It causes the lasing wavelength much less dependent on temperature, compared to the bandgap shrinkage. The carrier redistribution favoring high-energy states also significantly improves the characteristic temperature of short-wavelength mode.

Date Published: 25 July 2003
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 4986, Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices XI, (25 July 2003); doi: 10.1117/12.474384

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4986:
Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices XI
Marek Osinski; Hiroshi Amano; Peter Blood, Editor(s)