Temperature Analysis of Threshold Current in Infrared Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

Author

Chen, Chen ; Leisher, Paul O. ; Allerman, Andrew A. ; Geib, Kent M. ; Choquette, Kent D.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL

Volume

42

Issue

10

fYear

2006

Firstpage

1078

Lastpage

1083

Abstract

The temperature dependence of threshold current I_th in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) can be approximated by the equation I_th(T)=alpha+beta(T-T_min)², where T_min is the temperature of lowest I_th,alpha and beta are parameters, and temperature is T. We compare the temperature dependence of threshold current in VCSELs with GaAs, InGaAs, and strain compensated InGaAs-GaAsP quantum wells. From our analysis we find the coefficient beta is related to the gain properties of the quantum well, and is shown to serve as a benchmark for the VCSEL temperature sensitivity. The incorporation of strain-compensated high-barrier GaAsP layers in the active region of 980-nm VCSELs is demonstrated to reduce the threshold dependence on temperature

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; infrared sources; quantum well lasers; surface emitting lasers; thermal analysis; 980 nm; GaAs; InGaAs; InGaAs-GaAsP; InGaAs-GaAsP quantum wells; VCSEL; infrared vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers; strain compensation; temperature dependence; threshold current; Capacitive sensors; Equations; Indium gallium arsenide; Laser modes; Quantum well lasers; Surface emitting lasers; Temperature dependence; Temperature sensors; Threshold current; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; Diode lasers; temperature analysis; threshold current; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2006.881828

Filename

1703699