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We perform a detailed comparison of 2D Auger coefficients in narrow-gap type-I and type-II quantum wells (T1QWs and T2QWs), and the relative effects of Auger non-radiative decay on midwave infrared lasers employing both types of gain media. Comparison is also made to 3D Auger coefficients in bulk mid-IR materials, by defining a “normalization length” that accounts for the spatial extent of the electron and hole wavefunctions in the quantum wells. The comparisons confirm that Auger recombination in both types of QW is substantially suppressed relative to bulk, due primarily to the effects of compressive strain on the valence subband dispersions. We find that the 2D Auger coefficients in T1QWs remain substantially lower than those in T2QWs out to wavelengths beyond $3.5~\mu \text{m}$ . However, this does not necessarily imply a lower lasing threshold because a substantial fraction of the holes injected into T1QWs occupy lower subbands that do not contribute gain, so more must be injected to reach the lasing threshold. When all of the relevant considerations are combined, the thresholds for the best T1QW and T2QW lasers cross over near $\lambda ~\approx ~3.0~\mu \text{m}$ . Other characteristics governing the relative T1QW and T2QW laser performances above threshold, such as maximum output power and wallplug efficiency, are also considered.

Using a 2D metallic grating, we demonstrate the resonant enhancement of the external quantum efficiency of an nBn structure with a 0.5 $\mu \text{m}$ -thick-absorber. A total of two structures were studied with different barrier materials: ternary AlInSb and an InAs/AlInSb superlattice (SL). The device using an SL barrier had a diffusion-limited dark current of 6.7 $\mu \text{A}$ /cm2 at 150 K, which was four times lower than the ternary-barrier device. The surface plasmon polariton (SPP) resonance wavelength for devices with six different grating periods varied as predicted by simulations. The quantum efficiency (QE) was enhanced by up to 56% by coupling to the SPP mode. A peak external QE of 39% was achieved at $4~\mu \text{m}$ with a 1100 nm grating period.

We develop an analytical model of the phase-locking mechanism for diffraction-coupled arrays of semiconductor lasers. While the phase-locking range is found to be limited by nonuniformities between the individual lasers, increasing the gain-index coupling can expand this range. Detailed computer simulations confirm these predictions. Recommendations are made for using arrays of surface-emitting lasers to improve the stability of phase locking.

We report the light-current (L-I), spectral, and far-field characteristics of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) with seven different wavelengths in the /spl lambda/=4.3 to 6.3 /spl mu/m range. In continuous-wave (CW) mode, the narrow-stripe (/spl ap/13 /spl mu/m) epitaxial- side-up devices operated at temperatures up to 340 K, while at 295 K the CW output power was as high as 640 mW with a wallplug efficiency of 4.5%. All devices with /spl lambda//spl ges/4.7 /spl mu/m achieved room-temperature CW operation, and at T=200 K several produced powers exceeding 1 W with /spl ap/10% wallplug efficiency. The data indicated both spectral and spatial instabilities of the optical modes. For example, minor variations of the current often produced nonmonotonic hopping between spectra with envelopes as narrow as 5-10 nm or as broad as 200-250 nm. Bistable beam steering, by far-field angles of up to /spl plusmn/12/spl deg/ from the facet normal, also occurred, although even in extreme cases the beam quality never became worse than twice the diffraction limit. The observed steering is consistent with a theory for interference and beating between the two lowest order lateral modes. We also describe simulations of a wide-stripe photonic-crystal distributed-feedback QCL, which based on the current material quality is projected to emit multiple watts of CW power into a single-mode beam at T=200 K.

We demonstrate the substantial suppression of infrared (IR) blackbody emission from HgCdTe photodiode arrays with cutoff wavelengths of 4.8, 5.5, and 6.0 /spl mu/m. At room temperature, a reverse bias induces internal negative luminescence (NL) efficiencies of 95%, 93%, and 88%, respectively, which correspond to apparent cooling of the surface temperatures by 60, 59, and 49 K. Reverse-bias saturation current densities for the three devices were 0.11, 0.7, and 32 A/cm/sup 2/. Measurement and analysis of the material transmission characteristics indicate that the small residual inefficiencies may be limited by a parasitic absorption process. The 4.8 and 5.5 /spl mu/m photodiodes were fabricated into 18 /spl times/ 2 arrays with total areas of 5 mm /spl times/ 5 mm. In both cases, all 36 array elements were fully operable, and had similar electrical and NL properties. Effective fill factors were /spl ap/100%, since carrier diffusion led to the extraction of carriers from regions between the elements. These results show that efficient, low-power NL devices with active areas in the square-inch range are now feasible for such applications as the cold shielding of infrared focal-plane arrays.

We show that strong optically induced intervalence band transitions in type-II InAs/GaSb/AlSb quantum wells lead to reverse saturable absorption, and propose to apply it to optical limiting in the mid-infrared spectral region. A salient feature of the proposed limiter is the flexibility of the design for different wavelengths and threshold powers. We develop a rigorous theoretical model of the proposed limiter, and use it to estimate the relationship between the key figures of merit: insertion loss, threshold, optical bandwidth and dynamic range. We investigate tradeoffs involving the dynamic range, optical bandwidth and thickness of the limiter, and show that one can attain a favorable combination of these.

A new time-domain Fourier-Galerkin (TDFG) theory is developed to simulate the near-field, far-field and spectral characteristics of surface-emitting photonic-crystal distributed-feedback (SE PCDFB) lasers. It is found that a properly-designed two-dimensional hexagonal or square-lattice grating should efficiently couple the output into a single SE mode that retains coherence for aperture diameters of up to /spl ap/1 mm. We identify lattice structures and precise conditions under which all components of the transverse electric or transverse magnetic polarized optical fields constructively interfere to produce a single-lobed, near-diffraction-limited circular output beam. The TDFG simulations predict that quantum efficiencies as high as 30% (60% if reflectors are built into the waveguide structure) should be attainable. A surprising conclusion is that diffractive coupling into the surface-emitting direction must be relatively weak, in order to assure selection of the desired symmetric in-phase mode. Furthermore, gain media with a moderate linewidth enhancement factor should produce the best SE PCDFB performance, whereas edge emitters nearly always benefit from a very small value.

Because of an intrinsically low linewidth-enhancement factor, the quantum cascade laser (QCL) is especially favorable for patterning with a recently proposed 2-D photonic crystal (PC) lattice that substantially increases the device area over which optical coherence can be maintained. In this work, we use an original time-domain Fourier-transform (TDFT) algorithm to theoretically investigate the beam quality and spectral purity of gain-guided PC distributed-feedback (DFB) quantum cascade lasers. The conventional 1-D DFB laser and also the angled-grating DFB (/spl alpha/-DFB) laser are special cases of the PCDFB geometry. By searching the parameter space consisting of tilt angle, coupling coefficients, stripe width, and cavity length, we have theoretically optimized the PCDFB gratings for QCL gain regions. At a wavelength of 4.6 /spl mu/m, the simulations project single-mode emission from stripes as wide as 1.2 mm, and etendues of no more than three times the diffraction limit for 2-mm stripes. We also examine the tolerances required for single-mode and high-brightness operation. Comparisons are made to analogous simulations of a-DFB QCL lasers.

The heat-sinking properties of optically pumped semiconductor lasers mounted by the diamond-pressure-bonding (DPB) technique have been evaluated quantitatively. This method combines epi-side-down mounting with minimal processing and top optical access via pumping through the diamond. By correlating the pump-intensity variation of the emission wavelength with its temperature variation, specific thermal resistances have been determined for DPB-mounted type-II "W" lasers operating in the mid-infrared. Values

We present a theoretical analysis of surface-incidence and waveguide-mode second harmonic generation with detuned intersubband transitions in GaAs-AlGaAs, InGaAs-InAlAs and GaSb-InGaSb-AlGaSb asymmetric double quantum wells. The analysis includes the effects of absorption, saturation, pump depletion, optical carrier heating, mode confinement and competition, and the loss of phase coherence due to waveguide, bulk and resonant intersubband contributions to the refractive index mismatch. Optimal structures have been determined for each material system in both surface-incidence and waveguide-mode geometries. A scheme for maintaining phase matching by incorporation of a separate region with an intersubband transition tuned midway between the first and second harmonic frequencies is analyzed. At 10.6 /spl mu/m, the maximum conversion efficiency for the optimized InGaAs-InAlAs waveguide-mode device is /spl ap/16% at a pump-beam intensity of 40 MW/cm/sup 2/. Furthermore, the same device can be modulated to vanishing second harmonic output power when an electric field of -32 kV/cm is applied.

We formulate a time-domain numerical approach to optical wave propagation based on a locally one-dimensional implicit finite-difference approximation to the two-dimensional scalar wave equation and show how it can be used to study the nature of wave propagation in optical and optoelectronic devices with spatial nonuniformities and disorder. The technique is particularly well suited for the visualization of complex scattering and diffraction phenomena. We estimate the influence of interface roughness in semiconductor lasers with mirrors defined by etching processes as a function of a feature depth parameter and an in-plane correlation length. The reflectivity falls off exponentially with their product for small disorder yet remains close to its unperturbed value for the disorder scale attainable with the state-of-the-art etching technology. It is also shown how this approach can be applied to the design of an optically controlled heterojunction bipolar transistor, in which the Light enters from a lateral waveguide and must be absorbed in the base-collector depletion region.