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IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 12, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2000

Effect of Barrier Thickness on the Carrier Distribution in Asymmetric Multiple-Quantum-Well InGaAsP Lasers
Michael J. Hamp, Daniel T. Cassidy, B. J. Robinson, Q. C. Zhao, and D. A. Thompson
AbstractFour asymmetric multiple-quantum-well (AMQW) laser structures have been grown and tested. The structures were designed to study the effect of the thickness of the barriers on the distribution of carriers amongst the quantum wells by comparing the transition cavity lengths (TCL) of mirror image AMQW lasers. The TCL method provides a quantitative measure of the degree to which the uneven carrier distribution affects the net gain of wells owing to the position of the well in the active region. We experimentally demonstrate that reducing the thickness of the barrier layers from 100 to 50 results in a significantly more uniform carrier distribution. The thickness of the barriers is thus shown to be an important design parameter for MQW lasers. Index TermsCharge carrier processes, quantum-well (QW) lasers, semiconductor lasers.

II. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD AND RESULTS In this section we describe the TCL method and present the results of an experimental study of the effect of barrier thickness on the carrier distribution in MQW lasers. For long cavity lengths, all AMQW lasers initially reach threshold on the thickest wells in the active region and for short cavity lengths AMQW lasers initially reach threshold on the thinner wells in the active region. The cavity length above which AMQW lasers initially reach threshold on the thickest wells in the active region and below which they initially reach threshold on the thinner wells in the active region was defined as the TCL [3]. Hamp et al. [3], [4] showed that mirror image AMQW lasers do not have the same TCL. Structures with the thickest wells on the p-side of the active region have shorter TCLs than their mirror image structures. This can be explained as resulting from an uneven carrier distribution. Holes in InGaAsPInP devices tend to be concentrated near the p-side of the active region, thus more recombination occurs in wells near the p-side of the active region. When the thickest wells are on the p-side of the active region they contribute more gain than in the mirror image structure and hence can dominate laser performance to smaller cavity lengths and this results in a shorter TCL. , Hamp et Using the laser threshold condition, al. [4] showed that (1)

I. INTRODUCTION OR multiple-quantum-well (MQW) lasers under normal operating conditions, the carrier density is not the same in each well. Yamazaki et al. [1] and Hamp et al. [2] showed that the carrier distribution can be studied experimentally by comparing mirror image asymmetric MQW (AMQW) laser structures. AMQW lasers have different thickness QWs in the active region and mirror image AMQW structures are structures in which the ordering of the QWs from the p-side to the n-side of the active region is reversed. Hamp et al. [3], [4] developed the transition cavity length (TCL) method, which uses mirror image AMQW structures, to attain a quantitative experimental measure of the degree to which the carrier distribution affects the gain of wells depending on the position of the well in the active region. The TCL method has been used to study the carrier distribution as a function of quantum barrier height [3] and the number of QWs in the active region [4]. The purpose of this letter is to report a study of the effect of quantum barrier thickness on the distribution of carriers amongst the wells in InGaAsP laser devices using the TCL method. The effect of barrier thickness on device performance is not well understood. In this paper we experimentally demonstrate the degree to which quantum barrier thickness affects the carrier distribution and thus show the importance of quantum barrier thickness as a design parameter when making MQW devices.

(2) is the net gain of the thick wells and is the TCL where for the structure with the thick wells on the p-side of the active and are the net gain of the thick wells and region and the TCL for the mirror image structure. is the normalized difference in transition cavity lengths between two mirror image AMQW structures. Experimentally determined TCLs for mirror image AMQW structures can be used to quantify the degree to which the uneven carrier distribution affects the net gain of a well when it is on the p-side versus the n-side of the active region [4]. An important issue in the design of MQW lasers is how the barriers affect the carrier distribution. We previously studied the effect of barrier height on the carrier distribution qualitatively by

Manuscript received September 2, 1999; revised October 19, 1999. The authors are with the Department of Engineering Physics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L7, Canada. Publisher Item Identifier S 1041-1135(00)01099-5.

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comparing the TCLs of mirror image AMQW structures with low and high barrier heights [3]. Applying the quantitative analysis developed in [4] to the data in [3] demonstrates that by decreasing the barrier height by 120 meV the difference in gains for the thick wells when they are located on the p-side versus the n-side of the active region is decreased from 108% to just 18% for 1.5- m InGaAsPInP AMQW lasers. The design of the barriers profoundly affects the carrier distribution. In this letter we examine the effect of barrier thickness on the carrier distribution by comparing the TCLs of mirror image AMQW lasers with 100--thick barriers and with 50--thick barriers. Four laser structures were grown for this study at McMaster University using gas source molecular beam epitaxy and are shown schematically in Fig. 1. Structures 2 and 4 (not shown) are the mirror images of structures 1 and 3, respectively. Each structure contains two 100- wells and two 50- wells of comGa As P . Structures 1 and 2 have position In 100- barriers and structures 3 and 4 have 50- barriers. All Ga As P . The barriers are of composition In wells are 1% compressively strained and the barriers are 0.57% tensile strained. Structures 1 and 3 have the 100- wells on the n-side while structures 2 and 4 have the 100- wells on the p-side of the active region. Layer thicknesses and compositions are estimated to be within 3 and 1% of their target values respectively. Ridge waveguide (RWG) devices of widths 25 m were processed from each material. Cavity lengths ranging from 3002000 m 10 m were tested. 8 to 12 lasers of each cavity length were tested. Threshold current densities are reported in Table I for all four structures. The threshold current densities are typical for MQW structures grown and processed at McMaster. Table I shows that the threshold current density is higher than expected at and just near the below the TCL. We have observed increased TCL in 12 different AMQW laser structures and an increased near the TCL is consistent with experimental data reported by Yamazaki et al. [1]. Thus, we believe the increased threshold current density near the TCL is a general property of AMQW lasers. Fig. 2 shows the wavelength at threshold versus cavity length for structures 3 and 4. The sharp drop in the wavelength at threshold with decreasing cavity length indicates the transition cavity length where operation at threshold switches from the 100- wells at longer cavity lengths to the 50- wells at short cavity lengths. From Fig. 2 we see that the TCL for structure 3 is 650 50 m and for structure 4 is 550 50 m. The TCL for structure 1 is 950 50 m and for structure 2 is 550 50 m [4]. Using the TCLs for structures 1 and 2 with (1) and (2) we find that for the structures with 100- barriers the net gain of the thick wells when they are on the p-side of the active region is 74% larger than the net gain of the thick wells when they are on ). For structhe n-side of the active region ( , tures 3 and 4 with 50- barriers we find i.e., the net gain of the thick wells is 18% higher when they are located on the p-side of the active region than when they are on the n-side. Therefore, decreasing the barrier thickness from 100- to 50- decreases the effect of the uneven carrier distribution on the net gain from 74% to only 18%. Thin barrier layers result in a substantially more uniform carrier distribution. Thus,

(a)

(b) Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of the active regions of structure 1 and structure 3. Both structures contain two 100- wells and two 50- wells. In structure 1 the wells are separated by 100- barriers while instructure 3 the wells are separated by 50- barriers. The active regions of structures 2 and 4 are the mirror images of structures 1 and 3, respectively.

TABLE I THRESHOLD CURRENT DENSITIES FOR FOUR STRUCTURES TESTED

ALL

barrier thickness should be recognized as an important design parameter for MQW laser design. All four structures were modeled using a commercially available laser simulator. LASTIP [5] incorporates a full Poisson and continuity equation solver which treats electrons and holes separately in order to calculate the carrier distribution in the active region. LASTIP did not predict the experimentally observed dependence on barrier thickness. We have modeled the devices using a simple rate equation model [6] and have found that the dependence on barrier thickness can be predicted if one assumes that the current pumping a well decreases exponentially with the distance of the well from the p-side of the active region [6]. A physical explanation of this exponential dependence is given in [6].

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thickness from 100- to 50- decreases the difference in net gain for the thick wells when located on the p-side versus the n-side of the active region from 74% to 18%. These results experimentally demonstrate a substantially more uniform carrier distribution is achieved by reducing the barrier thickness from 100- to 50-. The experimental TCL data demonstrates that the thickness of the barriers is an important parameter in the design of MQW lasers. REFERENCES
[1] H. Yamazaki, A. Tomita, and M. Yamaguchi, Evidence of nonuniform carrier distribution in multiple quantum well lasers, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 71, pp. 767769, 1997. [2] M. J. Hamp, D. T. Cassidy, Q. C. Zhao, B. J. Robinson, D. A. Thompson, M. Davies, and J. D. Bewsher, Analysis of two asymmetric multiquantum well InGaAsP laser structures, in Tech. Dig., CLEO98, 1998, pp. 236237. [3] M. J. Hamp, D. T. Cassidy, B. J. Robinson, Q. C. Zhao, D. A. Thompson, and M. Davies, Effect of barrier height on the uneven carrier distribution in asymmetric multiple-quantum-well InGaAsP lasers, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 13801382, Oct. 1998. [4] M. J. Hamp, D. T. Cassidy, B. J. Robinson, Q. C. Zhao, and D. A. Thompson, Nonuniform carrier distribution in asymmetric multiple-quantum-well InGaAsP laser structures with different numbers of quantum wells, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 74, pp. 744746, 1999. [5] LASTIP Reference Manual, Crosslight Software Inc., Gloucester, ON, Canada. [6] M. J. Hamp and D. T. Cassidy, Experimental and theoretical analysis of the carrier distribution in asymmetric multiple quantum well InGaAsP lasers, J. Quantum Electron., submitted for publication.

Fig. 2. The lasing wavelength at threshold versus cavity length for structures 3 and 4. The symbols indicate whether the lasing at threshold corresponds to the 100- or 50- wells.

III. CONCLUSION We have applied the previously developed TCL method to evaluate the effect of quantum barrier thickness on the carrier distribution. We have demonstrated that decreasing the barrier