CALCULATED THRESHOLD CURRENTS OF NITRIDE-BASED AND PHOSPHIDE-BASED QUANTUM-WELL LASERS

We have calculated the room temperature gain current characteristics f or a 360 mn wavelength, 80 A GaN- Al0.14Ga0.86N and a red-emitting, 80 Angstrom Ga0.51In0.49P- (Al0.44Ga0.56)(0.51)In0.49P quantum well lase r structures, including many body effects, Although the carrier densit y and spontaneous current are much higher (by a factor of 4 and 3, res pectively) in the nitride structures for a given local gain, the highe r confinement factor at short wavelengths means the intrinsic threshol d current of these devices is predicted to be approximately twice that of red lasers with the same optical loss.