skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Important loss mechanisms in visible lasers revealed by hydrostatic pressure

Journal Article · · IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/3.234449· OSTI ID:5833320
; ; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Surrey, Guildford (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics
  2. Philips Optoelectronics Centre, Eindhoven (Netherlands)

The authors find that above 10 kbar, the effect of pressure on the threshold current of visible lasers is to increase losses to the X minima in the barriers. Below 10 kbar the threshold current remains relatively constant with pressure. By monitoring the lasing wavelength, they have measured the pressure dependence of the direct band gap of ordered GaInP to be 7 meV/kbar. Considerations of the effect of strain in the active region of a laser lead them to propose that increases in threshold current for tensile strained visible lasers as a function of increasing strain are due to losses from the [Gamma] minimum to X minima in the well. Similar increases in I[sub th] observed at high compressive strains can be explained by the reduction in well width, and hence optical confinement factor, which is necessary to maintain the same operating wavelength as the strain is increased.

OSTI ID:
5833320
Journal Information:
IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Vol. 29:6; ISSN 0018-9197
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English