Lasers Grown from Solid Arsenic

Using gas-source molecular-beam epitaxy and a solid arsenic source, a team from Princeton University in New Jersey has constructed a 1.3-µm InGaAsN quantum-well laser with a characteristic temperature of 122 K and quantum efficiency of 82 percent. The same method also produced a 1.4-µm version with a characteristic temperature of 100 K and a quantum efficiency of 52 percent. As described in the May issue of IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, growing the laser from a solid arsenic source improves performance by reducing the formation of N-H complexes, thus diminishing the nonradiative centers in the quantum well.