Fabrication, characterization and analysis of low threshold current density 1.55-μm-strained quantum-well lasers

Tertiarybutylarsine and tertiarybutylphosphine are less hazardous alternatives to arsine and phosphine as group V sources for crystal growth of In/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As/sub y/P/sub 1-y/ alloys by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Compressive and tensile-strained quantum-well lasers emitting at 1.55 /spl mu/m have been fabricated using these sources. Threshold current density as low as 93 A/cm/sup 2/, transparency current density as low as 38 A/cm/sup 2/ and internal efficiency of 91% were obtained for 1.5% compressive-strained single quantum-well lasers. These devices represent the best lasers emitting at this wavelength that have been reported in the literature. An analysis of some of the characteristics of these devices such as transparency current, differential gain and nonradiative recombination is also presented in this paper.