Evaluation of injectorless quantum cascade lasers by combining XRD- and laser-characterisation

• Published in: Journal of crystal growth Vol. 323; no. 1; pp. 480 - 483
• Main Authors: Grasse, Christian, Katz, Simeon, Böhm, Gerhard, Vizbaras, Augustinas, Meyer, Ralf, Amann, Markus-Christian
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.05.2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: A3. Laserepitaxy; B1. Arsenates; B1. Phosphides; B2. Semiconducting III/V materials; B3. Infrared devices; B3. Laserdiodes; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Crystal growth; Deviation; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Gas sensors; General equipment and techniques; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Lasers; Materials science; Mathematical analysis; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Optics; Other semiconductors; Physics; Quantum cascade lasers; Semiconductor lasers; laser diodes; Sensors (chemical, optical, electrical, movement, gas, etc.); remote sensing; Simulation; Specific materials; Theory and models of film growth; Wavelengths; A3. Laserepitaxy; B1. Phosphides; B3. Laserdiodes; B1. Arsenates; B2. Semiconducting III/V materials; B3. Infrared devices; Aluminium arsenides; Band structure; Arsenates; Digital simulation; Resonance energy; XRD; Indium arsenides; III-V compound; Indium phosphide; Quantum cascade laser; Semiconductor lasers; Growth mechanism; Gas detector; III-V semiconductors
• ISSN: 0022-0248; 1873-5002
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2010.10.156

We present a wavelength prediction procedure on the basis of X-ray measurements and simulations for InP-based injectorless quantum cascade laser (QCL) devices. These lasers show excellent performance in the mid-infrared wavelength range, but are very sensitive to growth deviations, which cause strong wavelength shifts and are a serious obstacle for applications like gas sensing. However, by XRD-simulations of the active region, which consists of InAs, AlAs, GaInAs and AlInAs, the thicknesses and compositions can be extracted and are used as input values for bandstructure calculations, so that a prediction for the resonance energy of the laser transition can be obtained. With this technique a wavelength evaluation of injectorless QCLs with 3% accuracy could be accomplished, which is an essential improvement in applications like gas sensing.