Room-temperature mid-infrared quantum well lasers on multi-functional metamorphic buffers

The modern commercial optoelectronic infrastructure rests on a foundation of only a few, select semiconductor materials, capable of serving as viable substrates for devices. Any new active device, to have any hope of moving past the laboratory setting, must demonstrate compatibility with these substratematerials. Across much of the electromagnetic spectrum, this simple fact has guided the development of lasers, photodetectors, and other optoelectronic devices. In this work, we propose and demonstrate the concept of amulti-functional metamorphic buffer (MFMB) layer that not only allows forgrowth of highly lattice-mismatched active regions onInP substrates but also serves as a bottomcladding layer for optical confinement in a laser waveguide. Using the MFMB concept in conjunction with a strain-balancedmultiple quantum well active region, we demonstratelaser diodes operating at room temperature in the technologically vital, and currently underserved, 2.5 –3.0 μm wavelength range.
Source: Applied Physics Letters - Category: Physics Authors: Source Type: research