LIFETIME OF NONEQUILIBRIUM CARRIERS IN SEMICONDUCTORS FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A COLLECTIVE-INTERACTION IN THE PROCESS OF RADIATIVE RECOMBINATION

InGaAsP/InP laser heterostructures in the continuous pumping regime we re investigated by autocorrelation methods. It was shown that below an d above the lasing threshold the laser radiation consists of ultrashor t coherent pulses and the temporal coherence of these pulses was measu red. The dependence of the pulse duration on the pump current was also investigated. The results obtained can be interpreted in terms of col lective resonances in the process of radiative recombination. To expla in the observed effects the carrier lifetime was treated as a combinat ion of the accumulation time and the collective emission time. (C) 199 8 American Institute of Physics.