Quantum Well Width Dependence of Threshold Current Density in InGaN Lasers

The quantum confined Stark effect was found to result in a strong quantum well width dependence of threshold current density in strained group-III nitride quantum well lasers. For an In{sub 0.2}Ga{sub 0.8}N/GaN structure with quantum well width in the neighborhood of 3.5nm, our analysis shows that the reduction in spontaneous emission loss by the electron-hole spatial separation outweighs the corresponding reduction in gain to produce a threshold current density minimum