Tunable piezoelectric semiconductor laser controlled by the carrier injection level

We propose a tunable laser diode based on a piezoelectric heterostructure. The tuning mechanism consists of modulating the gain spectrum during lasing by the quantum-confined Stark effect. The modulating electric field is pro duced by carrier separation in the active region, and its amplitude depends on the injected carrier density. In a proof-of-principle photopumped exper iment, we were able to generate a space-charge field of 20 kV/cm which shif ted the lasing wavelength by more than 3 nm in the 800 nm spectral region. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)03332-5].