The effects of interdiffusion on the subbands in GaxIn1-xN0.04As0.96/GaAs quantum well for 1.3 and 1.55 mu m operation wavelengths

The interdiffusion of GaxIn1-xN0.04As0.96/GaAs single quantum well (QW) str ucture with well width of 6 nm is studied theoretically. The as-grown Ga co ncentration in the QW is chosen to be 0.7 and 0.6 for the operation wavelen gths of 1.3 and 1.55 mum, respectively. We studied the effects of interdiff usion on the in-plane strain, confinement potential, and subband energy lev els of the QW using Fick's law. The diffusion coefficients of both the well and barrier layers are assumed to be constant. The effects of valence band mixing and strains are included in the calculation of the electron and hol e subband structures. We find that the group-III interdiffusion effects can result in blueshifts of 123 and 211 nm in the GaxIn1-xN0.04As0.96/GaAs QW at operation wavelength of 1.3 mum (x=0.7) and 1.55 mum (x=0.6), respective ly. Our results show that interdiffusion technique can be used to tune the operating wavelengths of GaInAsN/GaAs lasers for multiwavelength applicatio ns such as in the sources of dense wavelength division multiplexed optical communication systems. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.