Dynamic Characteristics of Aluminum-Gallium - Arsenide - Gallium-Arsenideconventional and Quantum-Well Double-Heterostructure Laser Diodes

86 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1981.The dynamic characteristics of Al(,x)Ga(,1-x)As-GaAs conventional and quantum-well double-heterostructure laser diodes were investigated.Spontaneous carrier lifetimes of 2.0 to 2.5 nanoseconds were determined for conventional double-heterostructure laser diodes grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MO-CVD). Photon lifetimes also were determined in two different ways--by measuring the variation of the period of the damped relaxation oscillation with current and by measuring the variation of the intrinsic quantum noise resonance with direct current. Values of 0.6 picosecond and 0.7 picosecond were obtained by these two techniques, respectively.Transient and noise measurements were made on Al(,x)Ga(,1-x)As-GaAs single- and multiple-quantum-well double-heterostructure laser diodes grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MO-CVD). In pulse operation, these lasers did not exhibit damped relaxation oscillations, and under direct current excitation, the quantum noise resonance was much less than that of standard conventional double-heterostructure laser diodes of comparable stripe widths.Active mode locking was performed on standard proton-bombarded stripe Al(,x)Ga(,1-x)As-GaAs double-heterostructure laser diodes grown by liquid phase epitaxy. Mode locking was also performed on single-mode self-aligned Al(,x)Ga(,1-x)As-GaAs double-heterostructure laser diodes and multiple-quantum-well double-heterostructure laser diodes both grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The proton-bombarded stripe lasers produced the shortest mode-locked pulses which were 20-30 picoseconds wide. The single-mode self-aligned lasers produced wider mode-locked pulses, 40-50 picoseconds wide, than the proton-bombarded stripe lasers. Little or no mode locking was observed with the multiple-quantum-well lasers.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD