DIFFERENTIAL GAIN AND THRESHOLD CURRENT OF 1.3 MU-M TENSILE-STRAINED INGAASP MULTI-QUANTUM-WELL BURIED-HETEROSTRUCTURE LASERS GROWN BY METALORGANIC MOLECULAR-BEAM EPITAXIAL-GROWTH

The laser characteristics of 1.3 mu m tensile-strained InGaAsP/InP mul ti quantum well (MQW) lasers were studied. The tensile strain of well layers ranged from 0.5% to 1.8%. The level of the strain dependence of the threshold current shows that the threshold current decreases dras tically with increase in the tensile strain from 0.5% to 1.3%, while i t stays almost constant in the 1.45%-1.8% range. Among all the samples , the 1.3% tensile-strained MQW laser shows superior performance in te rms of minimum threshold current and maximum differential gain (partia l derivative g/partial derivative N). The 1.3% tensile strain is the o ptimum level for the tensile-strained MQW buried-heterostructure laser s. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.