The Double-Heterostructure Concept: How It Got Started

Author

Kroemer, H.

Author_Institution

Electr. & Comput. Eng. Dept. & Mater. Dept., Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Volume

101

Issue

10

fYear

2013

Firstpage

2183

Lastpage

2187

Abstract

The double-heterostructure (DH) concept for lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grew out of the prelaser context of increasing the speed of the early bipolar junction transistors. The 1954 idea was to change the energy gap itself, with a graded-gap base, or a wide-gap emitter. This led to the 1957 more general concept of quasi-electric fields and potentials in structures with a position-dependent energy gap. This paper gives a personal chronological account of the evolution of these concepts toward the 1963 proposal of the DH laser, including some blind alleys and blunders along the way.

Keywords

energy gap; heterojunction bipolar transistors; light emitting diodes; semiconductor lasers; DH concept; DH laser; LED; bipolar junction transistor; double heterostructure concept; graded gap base; light emitting diode; personal account; position dependent energy gap; quasielectric field; wide gap emitter; Gallium arsenide; Lattices; Light emitting diodes; Radiative recombination; Semiconductor lasers; Transistors; Double heterostructure (DH); heterostructure; laser; quasi-electric force;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPROC.2013.2274914

Filename

6579634