Construction and working of Semiconductor laser (Ga As)

Semi conductor laser is a device whose active medium is a

semiconductor. It has a p-n junction doped in a single crystal of
semiconductor such as gallium-arsenide (Ga As).
Construction:
It is a single crystal of Ga-As and consisting heavily doped n and p-
sections.
n-section is doped with tellurium and the p-section is doped with
zinc.
The doping concentration is very high and is of the order of 1017 to
1019 dopant atoms/cm3.
The p- n junction is connected to a dc power supply in a forward bias
condition.
The resonant cavity is obtained by cleaving (polishing) the end faces
of the junction diode.
Other sides of the p-n junction device are made as rough surfaces to
prevent the leakage of light Smitha M G, Asst Professor, D.O.Physics, RNSIT
 Active region

+ p- type
Laser

n- type

Cleaved face-partially reflecting

Cleaved face-Fully reflecting

Smitha M G, Asst Professor, D.O.Physics, RNSIT

Working:

The Ga-As laser diode is subjected to a forward bias current.

Under the influence of the applied voltage, electrons from the n –
section and holes from p –section flow across the junction.
The width of depletion region decreases due to injection of
electrons and holes.
When a hole meets an electron, recombination takes place
resulting in the emission of a photon.
At low forward currents the diode act as an LED.
As the current is increased (applied voltage nearly equal to band
gap voltage), a threshold for lasing will be attained at which time an
active region is formulated very near the junction (depletion layer),
where the population gets inverted.
At this stage, a photon originally released by spontaneous emission
may trigger stimulated emission over a large number of
recombination, leading to the build up of laser radiation of high
power Smitha M G, Asst Professor, D.O.Physics, RNSIT
In case of gallium-arsenide, we get a light radiation in the
infrared region. 8874 Å at room temperature.

Smitha M G, Asst Professor, D.O.Physics, RNSIT