Modulation characteristics of InP-based MQW lasers: the impact of biaxial compressive and tensile strain

Summary form only given. The authors relate observed modulation characteristics of strained In_xGa_1-xAs-InP (0.33⩽x⩽0.73) MQW (multi-quantum-well) separate-confinement-heterostructure (SCH) lasers to properties of the band structures of biaxially strained In_xGa_1-xAs quantum wells. The differential gain was found to increase significantly for both compressive and tensile strain with respect to its lattice-matched value, indicating that strained devices will have larger 3-dB bandwidths than their lattice-matched counterparts. The authors have also measured the microwave responses of both strained and lattice-matched devices and found that the bandwidth of the lattice-matched devices are 3 and 5 GHz for devices with 63% In in the quantum wells. In addition, by measuring the turn-on delay time at various levels of drive current, the authors have measured a spontaneous lifetime of 0.78 ns for compressively strained ridge waveguide devices. They also calculated Auger coefficients for devices with 73% In in the wells