Effect of spin-orbit split-off bands on GaInP/AlGaInP strained quantum well lasers

We theoretically analyzed the effect of the spin-orbit split-off band on GaInP/AlGaInP strained quantum well lasers using 6/spl times/6 Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian. Because of the small spin splitting energy of GaInP, we show that the spin-orbit split-off subbands strongly couple with heavy and light hole subbands, and linear gain properties are greatly different from those without the effect of spin-orbit split-off bands. The unstrained quantum well structure is most influenced by the spin-orbit split-off bands, and laser characteristics such as the differential gain and threshold current are degraded. The compressive-strained quantum well has the lowest threshold current, and the tensile-strained quantum well has largest differential gain, which is improved by the effect of the spin-orbit split-off bands.<>