Temperature dependence of emission efficiency and lasing threshold in laser diodes

Author

Pankove, Jacques I.

Author_Institution

RCA Laboratories, Princeton, NJ, USA

Volume

4

Issue

4

fYear

1968

fDate

4/1/1968 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

119

Lastpage

122

Abstract

It is found that in GaAs1-xPxinjection lasers both the spontaneous emission efficiency η and the laser threshold $j$ vary exponentially with the temperature $T: eta = eta_{0} \\exp(-T/\\theta_{1})$ and $j = j_{0} \\exp(T/\\theta_{2})$ . θ1and θ2are usually nearly equal and range between 50 and 110°K. The behavior of the external efficiency is correlated with the temperature dependence of the absorption along the propagation path of the radiation: as the temperature increases, the exponential absorption edge shifts to lower energies faster than the emission peak. The difference between the two shifts is nearly linear with temperature. The effect of self-absorption on external efficiency was tested by measuring the light emitted transversely to the $p-n$ junction through a layer of constant thickness. With such a geometry, it is shown that the efficiency should vary as $\\exp [-A \\exp (T/\\theta)]$ . The experiment agrees with this prediction.

Keywords

Absorption; Automatic testing; Diode lasers; Gallium arsenide; Optical propagation; P-n junctions; Spontaneous emission; Temperature dependence; Thickness measurement; Time of arrival estimation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.1968.1075062

Filename

1075062