SEMICONDUCTOR

OPTOELECTRONICS - Part 2
Mike Adams
Department of Electronic Systems Engineering
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO3 3SQ
adamm@essex.ac.uk
 Review: what did we learn last time?
conduction band
• Semiconductors have energy bands
• Conduction and valence bands are

energy
important for optoelectronics
• Electron transitions between c-band and
v-band can be radiative or non-radiative
• Radiative transitions give absorption and
spontaneous and stimulated emission
valence band
• Stimulated emission gives optical gain
 What else did we learn last time?
• Spontaneous emission is broadband
• Stimulated emission is positive only

Emission rate
for a limited range of photon energy
• This range is where “population 0 50 100 150 200 250 300

inversion” occurs hν - EG (meV)

• Peak gain increases (approximately) 1

linearly with electron concentration 0.8

0.6

gm = a (n – no) 0.4

0.2

• Wavelength of peak gain decreases 0

linearly with increasing n

1.45 1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7
-0.2
Wavelength (microns)
-0.4
 What about quantum wells?
• 3-D “bulk” semiconductors have
density of states varying as E1/2

Energy
• Electrons occupy available states
starting at lowest energies Density of states

• 2D quantum wells (QWs) have

step-like density of states
• More electrons are available at

Energy
lower energies than for bulk
• This makes gain more efficient
for QWs than bulk Density of states
 Gain: bulk versus QW
• Wavelength of peak 1

0.8
moves much more with n 0.6

for bulk than QW 0.4

• Gain saturation is
0.2

stronger in QW than bulk -0.2

1.45 1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7

Wavelength (microns)
• Logarithmic variation of -0.4

peak gain with n in QW 1

⎛ n ⎞
0.8

g m = g o ln⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ 0.6

⎝ no ⎠
0.4

0.2

• QWs give more gain per 0

-0.2
1.45 1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65
Wavelength (microns)
1.7

electron than bulk -0.4

 This lecture:
Semiconductor laser structures
• Semiconductor materials and
heterostructures
• Slab waveguides
– Confinement
– Transverse modes
• Lateral optical and electrical confinement
• Laser structures
– Ridge-guide
– Buried heterostructure
What do semiconductor lasers look like?
With fibre pigtail in a package

inside the
package

laser
chip
 Semiconductor laser materials
The first semiconductor lasers were demonstrated in 1962
Simple diodes (p-n
junctions) were
strongly forward-
biased to obtain
population inversion.
This one is made of
GaAsP, an alloy that
N. Holonyak,
emits at 677 nm. IEEE J.
Selected Topics
Others were made of in Quantum
GaAs and emitted at Electronics 6,
about 850 nm. 1190 (2000)
 n-type and p-type semiconductors
n-type semiconductor
Donor atoms added to
“donate” electrons
(more negative electrons).
Extra electrons form energy
levels ED just below
conduction band Ec.
p-type semiconductor
Acceptor atoms added to “accept”
electrons
(more positive holes).
“Missing” electrons result in holes
with energy levels EA just above
valence band Ev.

conduction band conduction band

Ec
ED
EA Ev
valence band valence band
 Current transport by holes
Electrons move to right
(one at a time), and the
hole moves to left.
Current is carried as if by
a positively-charged hole.

Similar to
slow road
traffic
(“holes”
appear to
move back)
 p-n junction: band diagram
When p and n regions touch, free n-type p-type
carriers move.
electrons
Due to diffusion, electrons move holes
from n- to p-side, and holes move
from p- to n-side.
“Depletion region” formed at Depletion region
junction.
Built-in electric field is generated Ec
that opposes further diffusion.
Energy bands bend at junction to
describe charge distribution. Ev

p-n junction in equilibrium

 p-n junction under bias
Equilibrium Forward bias Reverse bias

n p n p n p

Forward bias decreases built-in potential

and promotes diffusion of carriers.
higher current
Ec e-
depletion Ec Ec
region
Ev Ev h+ Ev
Reverse bias increases built-in
Potential and inhibits diffusion
of carriers lower current
 Diode characteristic
50

40

I (mA)
30

20
Reverse 10
Forward
bias bias
0
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 V (V) 1
-10

Current-voltage relation: I = Io [eeV/kT – 1]

Reverse bias: low leakage current Forward bias: current increases

exponentially
“Rectifying” behaviour
 What was wrong with early lasers?
• Very high current densities needed (106 A/cm2)
• Low temperatures (77 K) needed for continuous wave
(CW) operation

Reasons
• Poorly-defined active region in simple diode structure
• Carrier wastage due to escape into p- and n-regions

Solution
• Heterostructures to confine carriers and photons to
active region ☺
 Heterostructures
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2000
"for basic work on information and communication technology"
"for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-
speed- and opto-electronics"
Zhores I. Alferov
Herbert Kroemer
Ioffe Institute
St Petersburg University of California
Russia Santa Barbara
USA
b. 1930
b. 1928
Each published heterojunction proposals independently in 1963
 Heterostructure principles

• A thin layer of lower band-

gap material is placed n p
between materials of higher
band-gap
electrons
• The heterojunctions form

energy
barriers to electrons and holes holes

• Refractive index varies

Refractive index
inversely with band-gap
• Hence the structure also Optical intensity
guides light
 The first heterostructures
• Early heterostructures used GaAs as the
active material and AlGaAs as the claddings. AlGaAs GaAs AlGaAs
Al substitutes for Ga on the crystal lattice.

• The band-gap of AlGaAs increases linearly 1.8

with Al content. Contents of 0.2 – 0.3 give EG (eV)
1.6
sufficient carrier confinement
1.4
0 0.1 0.2 0.3
• AlGaAs and GaAs have almost identical
lattice constants – less than 0.2 % mismatch.
This is important to avoid forming interface
states that can give non-radiative AlGaAs GaAs
recombination paths and poor device
reliability.
 GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure lasers
• Demonstrated cw
operation at room
temperature in 1970
independently at Ioffe
Institute (Russia) and
Bell Labs (USA) ☺

• Threshold current
densities < 103 A/cm2

• Wavelength ~ 850 nm

Z. Alferov, IEEE J. Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics 6, 832 (2000)

 Quantum well lasers
When active layer of heterostructure is reduced to around 10 nm,
quantum size effects dominate.
Absorption varies as (hν – EG)1/2 in bulk, but like a staircase in QW

This change means that quantum well lasers achieve the same gain as
bulk lasers at lower current densities
lower threshold current densities (~ 102 A/cm2) for QW
 What wavelengths are needed for
telecommunications?
100 For silica optical fibre the
Attenuation
(dB/km) minimum attenuation
10
occurs at 1550 nm
1

0.1

0.8 Wavelength 1.4 2.0

(microns) Transit ∆t
time

Pulse-spreading due to ∆λ

material dispersion is
minimum at 1300 nm 600 900 1200 1500

Wavelength (nm
 Materials for 1300 and 1550 nm lasers
• Lasing wavelength is determined by the band-gap
(0.95 eV for 1300 nm and 0.8 eV for 1550 nm)
• Materials must be chosen so that heterostructures can
be grown lattice-matched on suitable substrates
These constraints can be
satisfied by using the
quaternary alloy InGaAsP on
InP substrates.
In/Ga and As/P ratios can be
chosen to give the required
band-gaps for active and
cladding layers, whilst lattice-
matching to InP is preserved.
 InGaAsP/InP heterostructure lasers
Simplest case is using InP
claddings n-InP InGaAsP p-InP

c-band
Slightly more realistic energy
band diagram includes “spike”
and “notch” effects at

energy
interfaces
v-band

Optical waveguide formed by Optical

Refractive
change of refractive index intensity
index
(~3.5 for InGaAsP, 3.2 for InP
at wavelength of 1550 nm)
 How are heterostructures grown?
1. Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)
In ultra-high vacuum a beam of molecules is
directed towards a crystalline substrate such
that they stick on the substrate’s surface to
form a new layer of material
www.wsi.tu-muenchen.de

www.sandia.gov www.veeco.com
2. Metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE)
or Metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD)

Pyrolysis of organic
compounds containing
the required chemical
elements

www.acsu.buffalo.edu

Growth from gas phase at

moderate pressures (2 - 100 kPa)
www.fbh-berlin.de in a reactor
 Optical Waveguides
How does an optical waveguide work and why is it
important in lasers (and other optoelectronic devices)?

Use ray optics. Consider a ray at the NN

2 2 φ
interface between two dielectrics with
refractive indices N1, N2 (N1 > N2) θ N1
Angle of incidence θ is related to angle of
refraction φ by Snell’s law:
N1sinθ = N2sinφ N2
Critical angle θc is given by the condition
θc
φ = π/2: N N1
sin θ c = 2
N1
 Total internal reflection (TIR)
For angles of incidence > critical angle θc, TIR occurs.
So a ray in a waveguide can propagate by repeated reflection:

cladding N2

N1
core

cladding N2

From the zig-zag ray picture it appears that any angle of ray
propagation is possible, provided TIR is achieved.
This is not correct, since there are conditions on the phase changes
along the ray paths which mean that only discrete values of ray
angle are permitted.
 Waveguide modes
Discrete ray angles are related to waveguide modes
(a mode corresponds to a family of rays).
A mode may be defined as a permitted electric field distribution of
the waveguide which propagates with fixed phase velocity.

cladding N2 N2

core N1

cladding N2

electric electric
field field
Lowest-order mode First higher-order mode
 Roads guide traffic:

Waveguides guide
light:

Heterostructures guide
electrons - ??
 Quantum wells revisited:
analogy between waveguides and QWs
Charles H. Henry: “I did a few exercises to get a
feeling for optical waveguides. In the course of these
calculations, it suddenly occurred to me that a
heterostructure is a waveguide for electrons.”
“It was clear that there is a
complete analogy between the Refractive Optical
index intensity
confinement of light by a slab
waveguide and the confinement
of electrons by the potential well
that is formed from the energy c-band
differences in band-gaps in a
heterostructure.
This then led me to think that there should be “Quantum Well Lasers”,
Ed. P. Zory,
discrete modes (levels) in the quantum well…” Academic Press, 1993
Waveguide modes and QW energy levels
Field distributions Wave functions

electric

function
field

wave
lowest-order
mode
c-band

first higher- first excited state

energy
order mode refractive index
ground state
electric

funcrion
field

wave
“Effective refractive indices” Energy levels
 Waveguides: normalised frequency, v
The refractive indices of core (N1) and cladding (N2), the
wavelength (λ), and the core width (d) are combined into
the normalised frequency (v):
v= (
πd 2
λ
)2 1 / 21
N1 − N 2

As v decreases the number of modes that can propagate is

reduced (the modes are “cut off”). For v < π/2, only the
lowest-order mode can propagate. This is the mode that is
of interest for lasers.
Example: for λ = 1.55 µm, N1 = 3.5, N2 = 3.2, the
condition v < π/2 implies that d < 0.55 µm.
 Optical confinement factor, Γ
It is important to know the fraction of light
intensity that is propagating in the core of the
waveguide. This is the confinement factor, Γ.

intensity
∫coreoptical intensity
Γ=
∫ optical intensity
core + claddings
cladding core cladding

As the mode approaches cut-off, the optical

intensity spreads into the claddings and the
confinement factor decreases.
This corresponds to decrease of v.
In semiconductor lasers, the gain is only in the core
– so Γ should be as large as possible.
Variation of optical confinement with v
1
0.9 single-mode operation
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
Γ

0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
v
 Optical confinement factor in 1.55 µm
InGaAsP/InP lasers
N1 = 3.5, N2 = 3.2, d < 0.55 µm for single-mode operation
1
0.9
0.8
Confinement factor

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Guide width, d (microns)

Biggest single-mode confinement factor = 0.83

 Lateral optical and electrical
confinement
• The heterostructure gives optical
and electrical confinement in the

transverse
transverse direction ☺ active region

• In the lateral direction other

structures are needed for
confinement lateral
• Broad-area lasers suffer from high
threshold current and filamentary
behaviour (thin longitudinal regions
of lasing determined by lo
inhomogeneities)
ng
itu
di
na
l
 Early lateral confinement structures

Stripe-geometry laser
Narrow (5 – 20 µm) stripe contact defined by oxide insulation
Under stripe – gain. Elsewhere – loss. This is “gain guiding”.
Sometimes there is also some weak index-guiding (or anti-guiding).
Unstable behaviour with increasing current.
 Laser structures

Ridge guide

www.wsi.tum.de

Buried heterostructure
www.fibers.org
How do these lateral waveguides work?
Effective index method for
ridge guide:
Separate real structure into 3
separate 1-dimensional structures
(2 vertical and 1 horizontal)

Structure A has an
“effective index” (scaled A B
propagation constant)
lower than that of B index index

This results in a horizontal

effective index waveguide
effective
index of A effective index of B
 Ridge guide laser

• Relatively simple device

fabrication
– etched ridge, oxide
insulation
• Weak current confinement
– lateral diffusion in active
layer
• Lateral optical guiding
– effective index below ridge
> effective index at sides
 Buried heterostructure:
current confinement
The p-n junction containing
the MQW active region is
forward- biased for lasing.
This results in the n-p
“blocking” junctions at the
sides being reverse- biased,
so current only flows
through the active region.

Device fabrication involves etching of the central “mesa”, followed

by a second growth stage to form the blocking structure. It is
important to control the thickness and position of the blocking
structure to optimise laser performance.
 Buried heterostructure:
optical confinement
Active region of higher refractive
index is surrounded by uniform
medium of lower index
Strong lateral guiding ☺
Active region may be bulk (like
the InGaAsP region shown here)
or MQW (using InGaAs wells and
InP barriers usually)
Low threshold current ☺
 Most telecomms lasers used buried
heterostructures or ridge waveguides
 Next…

• How laser cavities work

– Fabry-Perot, distributed Bragg reflector,
distributed feedback, vertical cavity
• What determines the laser spectrum
– Cavity resonances
• What determines the laser threshold
– Threshold condition for different cavities