DETERMINATION OF THE WAVELENGTH DEPENDENCE OF AUGER RECOMBINATION IN LONG-WAVELENGTH QUANTUM-WELL SEMICONDUCTOR-LASERS USING HYDROSTATIC-PRESSURE

The variation of the threshold current of an unstrained 1.48-mu m InGa AsP quantum-well (QW) laser has been measured as a function of hydrost atic pressure up to 27 kbar, We combine this result with theoretical c alculations to extract the bandgap dependence of the Auger coefficient , C, over a range of 200 meV, We find that over this range C reduces b y a factor of about three, We have calculated the bandgap dependence o f the main Auger processes and conclude that the dominant Auger proces s over this wavelength range could either be the phonon-assisted CHCC process or the band-to-band CHSH process, Based on this result, we hav e estimated the threshold current density of strained and unstrained l asers with wavelengths ranging from 1.75 to 1.3 mu m using both these processes, We get good agreement between theory and experiment in both cases and show that Auger recombination is the dominant current contr ibution in 1.5- and 1.3-mu m devices.