We have proposed an efficiency droop model which can comprehensively explain experimental IQE droop phenomena
occurring at different temperatures, materials, and active structures. In our model, carriers are located and recombined
both radiatively and nonradiatively inside randomly distributed In-rich areas of InGaN-based QWs and the IQE droop
originates from the saturated radiative recombination rate and the monotonically increasing nonradiative recombination
rate there. Due to small effective active volume and small density of states of In-rich areas, carrier density is rapidly
increased even at low current density and the radiative recombination rate is easily saturated by different distributions of
electrons and holes in the momentum k-space. A measurement method that can separately estimate the radiative and
nonradiative carrier lifetimes just at room temperature is theoretically developed by analyzing the time-resolved
photoluminescence (TRPL) response. The method is applied to a blue InGaN/GaN QW LED. The experimental results
show that the radiative carrier lifetime increases and the nonradiative carrier lifetime saturates with increasing TRPL
laser power, which is one of direct evidences validating our IQE droop model.
We investigate the effect of carrier distribution characteristics in InGaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structures on
the efficiency droop of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Here, three kinds of inhomogeneous carrier distributions are
studied; inhomogeneous carrier distribution in the vertical direction between QWs, that in the horizontal direction of a
QW plane due to the current crowding in the LED chip, and that inside QW materials by carrier localization in the Inrich
areas. It is found, by numerical simulation, that the built-in polarization field in InGaN MQWs makes the hole
distribution between QWs more inhomogeneous, which enhances the efficiency droop. In addition, nonuniform current
spreading is also found to have a significant influence on the efficiency droop by the inhomogenous carrier distribution
in the plane of a QW. When the carrier distribution characteristic is investigated in a microscopic scale, the localization
of carriers in the In-rich areas is expected to reduce the effective active volume where carriers are able to recombine,
and enhances the efficiency droop due to the large increase in the carrier density at inhomogeneously distributed In-rich
regions.
AlInGaN based blue and blue-green LDs were investigated with regard to the
characteristics of GaN semiconductor laser diodes. High power, single mode blue LDs with
high COD level (~334mW under CW operation at 25°C, kink-free at 150mW) and long lifetime
(~10000 hours under CW operation, 50mW 25°C) were achieved. No significant characteristic
differences between blue LDs on LEO-GaN/sapphire and GaN substrate were observed. The
blue-green LD which has the wavelength of 485 nm was successfully fabricated and
demonstrated under CW operation 25°C, while it showed poor performances of LD
characteristics compared to those of blue LDs. We believe that the poor performance of blue-green
LDs were caused by the piezo-electric effect by lattice mismatch along C-axis of GaN, In
fluctuation by lattice mismatch and In solubility limit in InGaN QWs and thermal annealing
which was performed during the p-layer growth.
We investigated the dependency of waveguide structures on ripples of far-field patterns in 405nm GaN-based laser diodes theoretically and experimentally. As the n-type cladding layer thickness decreases, the passive waveguide modes strongly interact with an active layer mode. This suggests that the thicknesses of n-AlGaN/GaN superlattice clad and n-GaN waveguide layers have significant influences on FFP ripples. We successfully obtained very smooth far-field patterns perpendicular to the junction plane by optimizing both n-AlGaN/GaN clad layer thickness and n-GaN waveguide layer thickness.
We report on the development of GaN-based violet laser diodes (LDs) for the high-capacity optical storage application and blue LDs for the laser projection display application. InGaN LDs with emission wavelength of ~405 nm are already being adopted for next-generation optical-storage systems. We present results on >400 mW single-mode output power under pulsed operation which can be employed in 100 Gbyte multi-layer BD systems. We designed LD layer structures to exhibit high level of catastrophic optical damage (COD) and small beam divergence. In addition, GaN-based blue LDs with emission wavelength of ~450 nm have also been developed for the application to the blue light sources of laser display systems. We demonstrate single-mode blue InGaN LDs with >100 mW CW output power. Interestingly, we observed anomalous temperature characteristics from the blue InGaN LDs, which has shown highly-stable temperature dependence of output power or even negative characteristic temperature (T0) in a certain operation temperature range. This unusual temperature characteristic is attributed to originate from unique carrier transport properties of InGaN QWs with high In composition, which is deduced from the simulation of carrier density and optical gain.
The enhanced output power with improved lifetime is required for the GaN-based blue-violet laser diode (LD) as a light source for Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD. In this paper, the output power levels and aging behaviors in GaN-based LDs grown on sapphire substrates were compared in epi-up and epi-down bonding. At low current level, the two bondings
show little differences in L-I characteristics. At high current level, however, the epi-up bonding shows a rapidly decreased slope efficiency in L-I characteristics with increasing current injection. On the contrary, the slope efficiency in epi-down bonding is not so much deteriorating as that in epi-up bonding. The differences in junction temperature between epi-up and epi-down bonding are large at higher current levels. The junction temperature of epi-up bonding is
about two times higher than that of epi-down bonding, implying efficient heat dissipation in epi-down bonding. At aging test, the epi-down bonding LD shows lower degradation rate at the aging slope than that of epi-up bonding LD. The degradation rate is accelerated by poor heat dissipation in epi-up bonding. Thus, for the higher power and longer lifetime, it is necessary to employ efficient heat dissipation structures such as epi-down bonding for the GaN-based LD
on sapphire substrate.
O. H. Nam, K. H. Ha, H. Y. Ryu, S. N. Lee, T. H. Chang, K. K. Choi, J. K. Son, J. H. Chae, S. H. Chae, H. S. Paek, Y. J. Sung, T. Sakong, H. G. Kim, H. S. Kim, Y. H. Kim, Y. J. Park
KEYWORDS: Aluminum, Semiconductor lasers, Electron beam lithography, Near field optics, Gallium nitride, Superlattices, Near field, Magnesium, High power lasers, Gallium
High power and high efficiency AlInGaN-based laser diodes with 405 nm were fabricated for the post-DVD applications. Magnesium doped AlGaN/GaN multiple quantum barrier (MQB) layers were introduced into the laser diode structure, which resulted in considerable improvement in lasing performances such as threshold current and slope efficiency. Asymmetric waveguide structure was used in order to improve the characteristics of laser diodes. Aluminum content in the n-cladding layer was varied in connection with the vertical beam divergence angle and COD level. By decreasing Al content in the n-cladding layer, the vertical divergence angle was reduced to 17 degree and the COD level was enhanced to over 300mW. The maximum output power reached as high as 470 mW, the highest value ever reported for the narrow-stripe GaN LDs. In addition, the fundamental transverse-mode operation was clearly demonstrated up to 500 mW-pulsed output power.
With increasing demands for the development of high power GaN-based blue-violet laser diodes (LDs), thermal management has become an important issue. We present a new method to determine junction temperature of GaN-based LDs for simple, fast, and reliable characterization of thermal performances. The large change of forward operation voltage with temperature is advantageously used to measure junction temperature. Using this method, we compare junction temperature of LD structures with different substrates and chip mounting methods. It is found that the junction temperature can be reduced considerably by employing GaN substrates or epi-down bonding. For epi-down bonded LDs, as much as two-fold reduction in junction temperature is achieved compared to epi-up bonded ones and temperature increase in this case is only about 13 degrees for more than 100 mW-output power.
Using the finite-difference time-domain calculations, we study whispering-gallery-like modes in photonic crystal air-bridge slab hexagonal defect cavities as good candidates for high quality-factor (Q) and small mode-volume (V) resonant modes. In the hexapole mode of a modified single-defect cavity, structural parameters are optimized to obtain very large Qs of even higher than 2 x 106 with small effective V of the order of cubic wavelength in material, the record value of theoretical Q/V. In addition, the H2-cavity whispering-gallery mode (WGM) is investigated and the defect geometry is modified to increase the Q of the WGM. By symmetrically distributing 12 nearest neighbor holes around the defect and controlling size of holes, it is possible to drastically increase the Q of >105 while preserving effective mode volume of the order of the cubic wavelength in material. We expect the WGMs in photonic crystal cavities are quite promising for low-loss photonic integrated circuit elements and high-efficiency quantum optical devices.
Recent progress toward wavelength-scale photonic crystal lasers is summarized. To realize the ultimate laser, one needs to have a wavelength-scale photonic crystal cavity that is lossless. As a candidate for this ultimate laser, the two-dimensional unit-cell photonic crystal laser compatible with current injection is proposed. Experimental demonstration of the low-threshold two-dimensional photonic crystal lasers in the triangular lattice and the square lattice will be discussed. The very high quality factor in excess of 1,000,000 is theoretically predicted from the wavelength-scale resonator supporting the whispering-gallery-like photonic crystal mode.
Recent progress toward wavelength-scale photonic crystal lasers is summarized. Lasing characteristics of two possible configurations of the unit-cell photonic crystal laser that has a central node through which current could be supplied. The very high quality factor in excess of 100,000 is theoretically expected from a square lattice unit-cell photonic crystal resonator. Applications of photonic crystals to other forms of active devices are also briefly discussed.
Novel square lattice photonic band gap lasers are realized at room temperature from single cell photonic crystal slab micro-cavities fabricated in InGaAsP materials emitting at 1.5 micrometers . This single cell photonic band gap laser operates in the new class of two-dimensional mode to be classified as the smallest possible whispering gallery mode with genuine energy null at the center. The low-loss nondegenerate mode with modal volume of 0.1 ((lambda) /2)3 demonstrates a spectrometer-limited below-threshold quality factor > 2000 and a theoretical quality factor of > 10,000. Threshold incident peak pump power of 0.8 mW is achieved from this whispering-gallery-type laser mode. The other class of photonic crystal lasers is also observed outside the photonic band gap of the square lattice, operating in the mode characteristically one-dimensional.
We report thermally- and mechanically-dependable 2D photonic band-gap lasers operating at room temperature. Our thin slab photonic band-gap laser structure is sandwiched between air and a drilled aluminum oxide layer provided by fusion techniques. In this thin slab structure, the optical confinement of photons is achieved by 2D triangular photonic lattice in horizontal plane and total internal reflection in vertical direction. Pulsed lasing action is observed at 1.54 micrometers by 10-mW optical pumping with duty cycle up to 10%.
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