MOCVD growth and characterization of AlGaP/GaP/InGaP/GaP strained-layer single quantum wells

The performance of semiconductor lasers can be significantly improved by using strained quantum wells as the active medium. A combination of biaxial strain and quantum confinement removes the valence band degeneracy at the center of the Brillouin zone and leads to anisotropy in the valence band effective masses parallel and perpendicular to the quantum well interfaces. This effect has been shown to reduce threshold current density and eliminate losses due to Auger recombination and inter-valence band absorption. AlGaP/GaP/InGaP/GaP strained layer single quantum well structures are necessary for one of the shortest wavelength light-emitting devices of the direct gap type among III-V semiconductors