Theoretical simulation of carrier capture and relaxation rates in quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers

Journal Article · Sat Jun 14 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4882186· OSTI ID:22304191

Wu, Yunhu ^[1]; Zhang, Guoping ^[1]; Guo, Ling; Qi, Guoqun ^[2]; Li, Xiaoming ^[3]

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1. College of Physical Science and Technology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079 (China)
2. Department of Physics, Kashi Normal College, Kashi 844006 (China)
3. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074 (China)

Based on Auger scattering mechanism, carrier-carrier scattering dynamics between the two-dimensional carrier reservoir (also called wetting layer, i.e., WL) and the confined quantum dot ground and first excited state in quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers (QD-SOAs) are investigated theoretically in this paper. The scattering rates for independent electron and hole densities are calculated. The results show an ultra-fast carrier capture (relaxation) rate up to 1 ps{sup −1}, and there is a complex dependence of the Coulomb scattering rates on the WL electron and hole densities. In addition, due to the different effective mass and the level distribution, the scattering rates for electron and hole are very different. Finally, in order to provide a direction to control (increase or decrease) the input current in realistic QD-SOA systems, a simple method is proposed to determine the trends of the carrier recovery rates with the WL carrier densities in the vicinity of the steady-state.

• OSTI ID: 22304191
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 22 Vol. 115; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
AMPLIFIERS
AUGER EFFECT
CAPTURE
CARRIER DENSITY
CARRIERS
COULOMB SCATTERING
CURRENTS
DISTRIBUTION
EFFECTIVE MASS
EXCITED STATES
GROUND STATES
HOLES
LAYERS
OPTICS
QUANTUM DOTS
RELAXATION
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SIMULATION
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS