Low-Temperature Metal-Organic Vapor-Phase Epitaxy Growth and Performance of 1.3-µm GaInNAs/GaAs Single Quantum Well Lasers

GaInNAs/GaAs quantum-well (QW) lasers emitting at 1.3 µm were grown using metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) in the limit of very low growth rate and temperature. The material was characterized by photoluminescence (PL) Spectroscopy as well as by implementation in broad-area (BA) edge-emitting lasers. While the PL intensity was found to decrease by more than two orders of magnitude between 1175 and 1350 mn, the corresponding BA laser threshold current showed a much more modest increase. For a 1.28-µm laser the threshold current was 1.2 kA/cm 2 (1200 µm long devices), with a slope efficiency 0.24 W/A per facet and T 0 =100 K. Comparison between PL emission properties and BA laser performance revealed a complex relationship. A high PL intensity does not necessarily lead to low threshold-current lasers. In these cases, the FWHM seems to be the more relevant parameter for QW optimization.