1.58 µm InGaAs quantum well laser on GaAs

We demonstrate the 1.58 µm emission at room temperature from a metamorphic In0.6Ga0.4As quantum well laser grown on GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy. The large lattice mismatch was accommodated through growth of a linearly graded buffer layer to create a high quality virtual In0.32Ga0.68As substrate. Careful growth optimization ensured good optical and structural qualities. For a 1250×50 µm2 broad area laser, a minimum threshold current density of 490 A/cm2 was achieved under pulsed operation. This result indicates that metamorphic InGaAs quantum wells can be an alternative approach for 1.55 µm GaAs-based lasers