IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. QE-22, NO.

9, SEPTEMBER 1986 1915

Gain and the Threshold of Three-Dimensional

Quantum-Box Lasers
MASAHIROASADA,YASUYUKIMIYAMOTO, AND YASUHARUSUEMATSU, FELLOW, IEEE

Abstract-Gain and thresholdcurrentdensityareanalyzedfor ation broadening [ 121, [ 131. First, the electronic dipole
quantum-box lasers where electrons are confined in quantum well three-moment which gives the magnitude of the optical transi-
dimensionally, based on the density-matrix theory of semiconductor
lasers with relaxation broadening.
tion probability is analyzed, and its dependenceonthe
The electronic dipole moment and its polarization dependence are electric-field polarization is shown.Next,gainandthe
first analyzed, and it is shown that the gain becomes maximum when laser threshold are analyzed. Results are compared with
the electric field of light is parallel to the longest side of the quantum those of conventional, quantum-film, and quantum-wire
box. Calculated gain is about 10 times that of bulk crystal for 100 A lasers. It is shown that remarkable reduction in the laser
X 100 A X 100 A GaAs/G~.,Al,.,Asquantum box, and 15 times for
Ga,,,,Ino.,,As/InP quantum box with the same size, respectively. The
threshold is expected by the quantum-box structures.
thresholdcurrentdensityare 45 Akm2 and 62 A/cmZfor GRIN-
SCH GaAs/(Ga,.,A10.,As-Gao.4Al~.~As)Gao.a71nnand,,As/ 11. GAININ QUANTUM-BOX LASERS
(Ga, 281n0.72As0.6P0,-InP),respectively,wherefor
the
GaInAs/ A . Dipole Moment
GaInAsP/InP system the intervalence hand absorption and nonradia-
tive recombinations have been assumed to be the same as those ob- The optical transition probability of electrons is pro-
tained for bulk crystals experimentally. These results show the pos- portional to the square of the matrix element of the dipole
sibility of remarkable reduction in the laser threshold by the quantum- moment formed between an electron and a hole. This ma-
box structures.
trix element is calculated using the electron and hole wave
functions. The electron wave function confined in a quan-
I. INTRODUCTION tum-box is approximately written as follows when the size
ONSIDERABLE attention has been paidto the quan- of the box is much larger than the lattice period,as in the
C tum-well lasers with ultrathin active layers [ 11, [2], case of conventional quantum-well (quantum-film) struc-
since they havesuperiorcharacteristics,suchasex- tures [ 141:
tremelylow threshold current[3]-[6],lesstemperature q c n m l = uc(r) +cxn(x) +cym(Y> +czl(z>, (1)
dependence [ 7 ] , narrowgainspectrum [8],etc.,com-
pared to conventional double heterostructure lasers. These where the subscript c (or h ) denotes the conduction band
merits are expected to become more remarkable as the (or heavy-hole band), n, m , and 1 denote the label of the
dimension of the quantization is increased. Experimen- quantized energy levels in the box, u,(r) is the periodic
tally,fabrication of thetwo-dimensionalquantum-wire part of the bulk Bloch function, and GcXn,aCym, and +cz,
structurehasbeen reported [9]. Theoretically,theim- are the envelope functions along the x-, y - , and z-direc-
provement in the temperature dependence of the threshold tions, respectively, as shown in Fig. 1 (see the Appen-
current by multidimensional quantum-well structures has dix).
been pointed out [ 101, and the increase of gain in quan- Each of the envelope functionsin (1) is a standing wave
tum-wire lasers has also been discussed [ l l ] . However, which is composed of two propagating waves with op-
gain and the laser threshold in three-dimensional quan- posite directions to each other. The components of the
tum-boxstructures,whereelectronsarethree-dimen- wave vector (kx, ky, and k,) of these propagating waves
sionally confined, hasnot yet been discussed theoretically are determined by the quantum numbers ( n , m , and I) as
until now. discrete values, as shown in the Appendix. Consequently,
In this paper, we analyze gain and the laser threshold the wave function given in (1) is composed of eight prop-
of the three-dimensional quantum-box lasers, based on the agating waves, i.e. , eight bulk Bloch functions. As a re-
density-matrix theory of semiconductor lasers with relax- sult, the matrix element of the dipole momentof the quan-
tum-box structures is given as follows, calculated by the
same way as in the quantum-film structures [ 141:
Manuscript received November 28, 1985; revised March 3, 1986. This
work was supported by a Scientific Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Ed- Rch = {*cnml /erl*hnrm’l‘)
ucation,Science,andCulture,Japan.Thispaperwaspresentedatthe
Technical Group Meeting on Optical and Quantum Electronicsof IECE of 6nn*6m,,6ll, <uclerluh>, (2)
Japan, Tokyo, Japan, September 1985 (in Japanese). k
The authors are with the Department of Physical Electronics, Tokyo
Institute of Technology, Meguro-Ku, Tokyo 152, Japan. where (u,lerluh> is the bulk dipole momentat fixed wave
IEEE Log Number 8608753. vector k ( = k c = k h ) , the summation is made with respect

0018-9197/86/0900-1915$01.00 O 1986 IEEE

1916 IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. QE-22, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 1986

tion, the square of the effective dipole moment is given

by averaging (3a) over the eight fixed directions of k as
( R : h ) = R2(cos28 sin2 d, + cos2 d,)611,6m&n,
= R2(k: + k:)/k2 * 611r6mm’6nn’, (5)
where 8 and d, in this case are the latitude and longitude
of any one of the eight fixed k’s, respectively, and the
relation between these angles and the quantized energy
Fig. 1. Envelope functions of an electron confined into quantum box along
levels is given in the Appendix. Since the angles 0 and
the x - , y - , and z-axes. 4 depend on the quantized energy levels, and therefore,
on the shape of the quantum box, ( R : h ) in (5) is depen-
to k of the eight propagating waves mentioned above, e dent on the shape of the quantum box. ( R:h) is less than
is the electron charge, and r is the position operator. We R 2 for any shape of the quantum box, and is (2/3)R2 for
haveneglected thelight-holeband in (2), becausethe a cubic quantum box where k: = k; = k t , which is the
quantized energylevels of lighthole are much deeperthan same value as that of bulk crystal [13].
those of heavy hole. Together with the results on the quantum-filmand
The dipole moment of bulkcrystal at fixed k , ( u , I erl u h ) quantum-wire structures [14] [15], [ l l ] , it is concluded
-
in (2), has been calculated by the k p method [ 131. It for the polarization
quantum-well
dependence
structures that the
of the dipole moment in
interaction energy Rch -
has been shown that this dipole moment is rotating in the
plane perpendicular to the wave vector k . Representing E becomes maximum when the electric field E is parallel
the latitude and longitude of the wave vector k by 8 and to the longest side of the interface of the quantum-well
d, (8 = 0 at the y-axis, and d, = 0 at the z-axis), each structures.
component of ( u , 1 erl uh) is given by [ 141
B. LinearGain
+
R(cos 8 sin d, j cos d,), (for x-direction) (3a) Using
the
density-matrix theory
with relaxation
-R sin 8, (for y-direction) (3b) broadening [ 121, [ 131, the linear gain a(’) of the quantum-
box lasers is given by
R(cos 8 cos d, - j sin 4), (for z-direction) (3c)
where the magnitude of the dipole moment R is given by
~ 3 1 ~, 4 1

where Echis the transition energy between an electron andwhere the summation is made with respect to quantized
a heavy hole, Eg is the bulk band gap energy, A, is the energy levels, w is the angular frequency of light, eo and
spin-orbit splitting, and m, is the condition effective mass. po are the dielectric constant and permeabilityof the vac-
The interaction between the dipole momentRchand the uum, n, is the refractive index of the quantum box, f, and
electric fieldof light, E , is given by Rch - E . For bulk f u are the Fermi functions[ 121-[ 141, the quasi-Fermi lev-
crystals, k distributes over all directions, and so does the els of which (Efcand EfJ are determined by the injected
dipole moment. Therefore, theeffective dipole moment is carrier density as shown below. T~~ is the intraband relax-
obtained by averaging the component of the dipole mo- ation time [12], and gch is the density-of-states of elec-
ment parallel to E (one of (3a)-(3c), for example) over tron-hole pairs withsamequantizedenergylevelswith
all directions of k [ 131. each other given by
For quantum-box structures, as discussed above, the ef-
gch(Ech) = 26(Ech - Ecnml - Ehnml - Eg)/wxwywz, (7)
fective dipole moment is calculated by averaging-dipole
moments corresponding to the eight directions of k( k,, where w,, wy, and w, are the well widths along the x-, y-,
* k v , *k,). Due to this quantization of k , which is of the and z-directions, respectively, 6 ( E ) is the delta function,
sameoriginasthat in quantum-filmandquantum-wire and Ecmnland Ehnmlare the quantized energy levels given
structures [ 141, [ 151, [ 111, the magnitude of the interac- in the Appendix.
-
tion Rch E is dependent on the polarization direction of Electron density N andholedensity P( =N ) in the
E . By the same calculation as for the quantum-wire struc- quantum box are related to the quasi-Fermi levels(Ef, and
tures [ l l ] , it is foundthat Rch E becomesmaximum Efu) as
when E is parallel to the longest sideof the quantum box.
For a cubic quantum box, Rch * E is isotropic. Assuming
that the side of the quantum box along the x-direction is
the longest in Fig. 1, and that E is parallel to the x-direc-
ASADA et al.: THREE-DIMENSIONALQUANTUM-BOXLASERS 1917

QUANTUM BULK WIRE QUANTUM

( Conventional 1 FILM BOX

E E E

&E I QE)
k &El

Fig. 3 . Variation of density-of-states of electrons with the increase of the

quantization dimension in quantum-well structures.

Wavelength X (urn)
Fig. 2. *Gain spectra calculated for Gao,4,1no,d3As/InP100 A X 100 A X
100 A cubic quantum box, 100 A X 100 A quantum wire, 100 A thick
quantum film, and bulk crystal at T = 300 K.

P - N

3 , 4 45
where the origin of the energy levels is at the bottom of Carrier Density (10"~rn'~)
the conduction band. (a)
Fig. 2 shows the gain spectra calculated for 100 X A
100 A X 100 AcubicGao,47@o,53As/InPquantumbox
compared with 100 A
X 100 A quantum wire [11], 100
A thick quantum film [14], andbulkcrystal [13]. The
direction of electric-field polarization has been chosen so
that gain becomes maximum for all of the quantum wells,
according to the above discussion of the dipole moment.
The intraband relaxation time T~~has been assumed to be
same as thebulkvalue, 1 X s, forallquantum wells
in order to obtain the effect of the change in density-of-
states on the gain spectra, although detailedphysical con-
sideration will be necessary for the intraband relaxation
process in quantum well structures? whichhas not yet been
established. As can be seen, the shape of spectrum be-
comessharperwithincreasingquantizationdimension. (b)
This is due to the variation of the density-of-states [lo] Fig. 4. Maximumgain as a function of carrierdensitycalculated for
which is shown in Fig. 3 . The width of gain spectrum is (a) Gao,471no,,,As/InP
and
(b) GaAs/Ga,,AIo.,As quantum
boxes,
quantum wires, quantum films, and bulk crystals.
determined onlyby the relaxation broadening for quantum
box, since the density-of-states is given by the delta func-
tion, while for other quantumwells it is determined by all three effects: i) excitonic effect, ii) band warping at high
of theshapesof the density-of-states,the relaxation energy in the conduction band, and iii) change in the in-
broadening, and the.therma1 distribution of carriers. Fig. traband relaxation time from the bulk value. For i) , the
4(a) and (b) show the peak gain as a function of carrier Coulomb interaction between electrons and holes may be
density N for Ga0.471no,53As/InP and GaAs/Gao.8Alo,2As stronger than the case of bulk crystals, since electrons are
bulk and quantum wells with various quantization dimen- perfectly confined, and thus, this effect may influence the
sions. Gain increases with increasing quantization dimen- gain even at high injection. The strength of the dipole
sion. For GaAs/GaAlAs, gain of quantum box is about moment becomes larger than the value calculated above
ten times that of bulk crystalat carrier density above about due to this effect, as in the bulk case [22]. For ii), due to
3.5 X 10" cmP3, and, for GaInAs/InP, about 15 times the band warping which makes the effective mass large at
that of bulk crystal above about 2 X lo'* ~ m - ~ . high energy, the quantized levels become lower than the
In the present theory, we have neglected the following value obtained in the Appendix. Therefore, carrier den-
1918 IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. QE-22, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 1986

sity at these levels determined by the Fermi function be-

comes larger, which results in higher gain. For iii), since
thescattering probability of electrons may be small in
quantum-box structure due to the reduction of the density-
of-states,the gain may becomelarger.Moreover, as
pointed out recently [23], the approximation of the intra-
band relaxationeffect by the Lorentz shapein (6) becomes
unexact as the photon energy goes away from the center
of the Lorentz shape. Thiseffect also makes the gain larger Fig. 5 . Quantum-box array for which threshold current is calculated in the
text.
[ 2 3 ] . Consequently, the three effects listed above make
the gain larger, and thus, the gain magnitudes calculated
here may give the lowest limit.
111. THRESHOLD CURRENT DENSITY
We assume here that quantum boxes are arrayed in the
plane perpendicular to the injection current as shown in
Fig. 5 . The broadening of the quantized energy levels due
to the interaction between the boxes is neglected, assum-
ing that the well potential is deep enough. This assump-
tion is satisifed for well depth and well width larger than
about 0.1 eV and 100 A , respectively 1141. Current is
assumed to be injected only into the surface of quantum
boxes due to the potential difference between the box re- 10'
IO 102 IO' 106
gionandtheseparationregion.Carrier density in the Current Denslty J (Alcm'
quantum boxes is related to injection current as
Fig. 6 . Maximum gain as a functionof injection current density calculated
J = qnw,eN/~,, (9) for GaAs/Ga, ,AI, ,As quantum box, quantum wire, quantum film, and
bulk crystal (conventional double heterostructure). Dashed line on each
where J expresses the average currentdensity which is the curve is the level of gain required for the laser threshold.
totalcurrent,assumedto be injected entirely into the
quantum boxes, divided by the whole area including both of bulk crystal, since the dipolemoment is averaged over
of the surfaces of quantum boxes and separation region. all modes of spontaneous emission which distribute over
We use this definition for current density because a layer all directions.
of quantum-box array including the separation region is For short wavelength (wide bandgap) semiconductors
regarded as a homogeneous artificial semiconductor layer. such as GaAs/GaAlAs, the rate of nonradiative recombi-
7 is the rate of the surface area of quantum boxes included nations such as the Auger effect is much smaller than that
in the whole area. q = 0.25 for the array shown in Fig. of radiative recombination, and thus, the carrier lifetime
5 , where the intervals between boxes along the x- and z- 7, is approximately equal to the radiative recombination
directions are equal to the well widths w, and wz,respec- time 7,. In this case, the gain is related to the current den-
tively, and moreover, w, = w,. The effect of optical con- sity using (6), (9), and (11). Fig. 6 shows the maximum
finement into the quantum-box region is discussed below gain as a function of current density calculated for GaAs/
[see (12)]. n is the number of the layers of quantum-box Gao,8Alo.2A~ bulk(conventionaldouble heterostructure)
array, and 7, is the carrier lifetime, which consists of the and quantum wells with various quantization dimensions.
radiative and nonradiative recombination times (7, and 7nr) The following assumptions have been madein Fig. 6: the
as thickness for bulk crystal is 0.15 pm, for the quantum
1/7, = +
1/~, 1 / ~ ~ ~ . (10) wire wires are arrayed with the separationlength equal to
the wire width, and for the quantum box cubic boxes are
Radiativelifetime 7, is obtainedfromthespontaneous arrayed in the structure shown in Fig. 5 . The layer num-
emission rate by the same way as that of bulk crystal [16] ber n in (9) is one for all cases. Theincreases of gain with
as the quantization dimension is observed in Fig. 6.
.r rm The threshold condition is expressed using the linear
gain as
=
ath = %+,(1 - t x t y t&ex/(txtytz)
+ In ( W ~ ( t X t Y W ? (12)
where the summation is made with respect to quantized where a t h is the threshold gain, the laser resonator is
energy levels, and the square of the dipole moment used formed along the z-direction in Fig. 5, CY,, and aeXare the
in this equation is approximated as being the same as that loss coefficients in the quantum boxes and other regions,
ASADA et al.: THREE-DIMENSIONAL QUANTUM-BOX LASERS 1919

respectively, E,, EY, and E, aretheoptical confinement The linear gain has been calculated and shown to be
factors in the quantum boxes along the x - , y - , and z-di- about ten times and 15 times those of bulk crystals for
rections, respectively, L is the resonator length, and R is 100 A x 100 A x 100 A GaAs/Gao,8Alo,2Asand
the reflectivity of the end mirrors. 4, = E, = 0.5 for the Gao,471no~53As/InP quantum boxes, respectively,at fixed
box array in Fig. 5 , assuming that the width of the laser carrier density.
waveguide along the x-directionis large enough compared The threshold currentdensityhasbeencalculated
tothewavelengthoflight. 4, = 1 and Ez = 0.5 fora to be 45 A/cm2 and 62 A/cm2 for
GRIN-SCH
quantum-wire array perpendicular to the resonator direc- GaAs/(Gao,sA~o.2A~-Gao.4Alo,6A~) and Gao.471no.s3As/
tion, with the direction of wires chosen so that the gain (Gao,281no.72A~0.6P0.4-InP) quantum-boxarray lasers, re-
becomes maximum [I 13. E, = 4, = 1 for quantum film spectively, where for the GaInAs/GaInAsP/InP system the
and bulk. intervalence band absorption and nonradiative recombi-
The threshold current density is obtained by putting the nations have been assumed to be same as those obtained
threshold gain q h calculated by (1 1) into Fig. 6. We as- for bulk crystals experimentally. Although the quantum-
sume in the calculation a,, = ae, = 10 cm-’, which is box structure hasnot yet been realized, these results show
the same as the bulk value around N = 10l8 cm-3 [17], the possibility of remarkable reduction in the laser thresh-
ln(l/R)/L = 30 cm-’, E, = 0.4 forbulk (converitional old by this structure.
doubleheterostructure)and0.037forquantumwells,
which is the value calculated for GRIN-SCH [3] GaAs/
APPENDIX
(Gao~sAlo,2A~-Gao,4Alo~6A~) with theactivelayer thick- WAVEFUNCTIONS AND QUANTIZED ENERGY LEVELS
ness of 100 and the cladding layer thickness optimized
to obtain maximum E,. The threshold gains thus calcu- Here we calculate the wave functions and the quantized
lated are shown in Fig. 6 by the dashed lines for bulk and energy levels in quantum-box structures. The method we
all the quantum wells. From these threshold gains in Fig. use is that corresponding to the equivalent refractive in-
6, the threshold current densities are obtained for GaAs/ dex method used in the optical waveguide theory 1211,
GaAlAs, to be 1050 A/cm2 forbulk (conventional double Thismethod is agoodapproximationwhen w, >> w,
heterostructure), 380 A/cm2 for quantumfilm, 140 A/cm2 >> w,, where w,, wY,and w, are the well widths of the
for quantum wire, and 45 A/cm2 for quantum box. These quantum box along the x-, y-, and z-directions, respec-
threshold current densities can be reduced further by op- tively, or wheQ the well depth is much larger than the
timizing the well thicknesses. resulting quantized energy levels measured from the bot-
For GaInAsP/InP systems, nonradiative recombination tom of the well.
processes, such as the Auger effect and carrier leakage, The calculation process is schematically shown in Fig.
and the intervalence band absorption must be taken into 7. First, we obtain the envelope function and the energy
account in r,, in (10) and aUcin (12), respectively, in the level of the conduction band along the z-axis (aczl in (1)
estimation of the threshold current density. These effects and E,,l) by the following equation:
have not yet been estimated for quantum-well structures.
For Gao,471no,s3As/InP conventional double heterostruc-
tures, the carrier density dependencesof the intervalence with the potential given by
band absorption and the carrier lifetime including nonra-
0 (lzl Iw,/2: inside the well),
diativerecombinationsareexpressedexperimentally as VcSz) = (‘4-2)
a,, = KoN with KO = 4 X cm2and 1 / ~ ,= BeffNY AE, (lzl 1 w,/2: outside the well),
with Be, = 1.5 X IO-” cm3/s and y = 2 [18]-[20]. If
we use these expressions for quantum box for the mo- where the origin of the energies is at the bottom of the
ment,the threshold currentdensity is estimated to be conduction band, and AE, is the well depthwhichhas
62GRIN-SCH
for
A/cm2 Gao,471no,53As/ been calculated by the method of linear combination of
atomic orbitals [14]. By the same calculation as that in
(Gao.281no.72Aso.6Po.4-InP) quantum-box array lasers ( 4 , =
0.02) which is the same structure as that of GaAs/GaAlAs conventionalquantumfilms,theenvelopefunction is
mentioned above. given by

IV.CONCLUSION
Gain and threshold current density have been analyzed
forquantum-boxlaserwhereelectronsareconfined in
quantum wells three-dimensionally, based on the density-
matrixtheoryofsemiconductorlaserswith relaxation
broadening.
The electronic dipole moment has first been analyzed, (lzl 2 w,m (A-4)
and it has been shown that the gain becomes maximum where mCland mc2are the effective masses of the conduc-
when the electric field of light is parallel to the longest tion bands inside and outside the well, respectively. The
side of the quantum box. energy level Eczris obtained from the following equation:
 ( I ) Z-directton(2lY-dlrection(3)X-dlrection

Fig. 7. Calculation process of the quantized energy levelsin quantum box,

which is corresponding to the equivalent refractive index method in op-
tical waveguide theory. Calculation is processed from (1) to (3).

Side of Cube (A1

Second, weobtain the envelope function and the energy Fig.8.Emissionwavelengthcorrespondingtothetransitionbetween
level along the y-axis (+cy,, in (1) and ECJ,J by the equa- quantized energy levels of electron and hole in cubic quantum box, as a
function of length of side of cube.
tion obtained by exchanging z and the label l by y and m ,
respectively, with potential Vcy( y ) given by
expressed similarly to (A-10) and (A-1 l), and thus, the
totalwavefunctiongivenby (1) is dividedintoeight
propagating wave functions. Each component of the wave
vector of these propagating waves is quantized due to the
Equations for E,, and +cy,, are obtained similarly to (A- quantization of EcZI,E,,,, and E,,,. Representing the lon-
3)-(A-5). gitude and latitude of oneof the fixed eight wave vectors
Finally, we obtain the envelope function and the energyby 8 and 4 (8 = 0 at the y-axis and 4 = 0 at the z-axis),
level along the x-axis ( + c . , l in (1) and E,,,) by the equation the eight directions of k are given by (8, *4), (8, a F
obtained by exchanging y and the label m by x and n , +), (a - 8, *+), and (a - 8, a
following relations:
4). We havethe *
respectively, with the potential V&) given by
cos2 8 = k $ / k 2 = Ecym/Ecnml (A-12)

COS’ 4 = k:/(k2 - k;) = Ecz~/(Ecnm,

- ECy,). (A-13)
By this process, quantized energy level in the conduc- The dipole moment in ( 5 ) iscalculated by theseequa-
tion band of the quantum box is obtained by tions.
Ecnml = E,,, + Ecym+ Ec.,,, (‘4-8)
3
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
and the total wave function in the quantum box is given The authors would like to thank Prof. K. Iga and As-
by (1). SOC. Profs. K. Furuya and M . Yamada for many discus-
Quantized energy levels in the valence band are calcu- sions,
lated by the same process. The emission wavelength cor-
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