Low-threshold continuous laser operation (300–337 °K) of multilayer MO-CVD AlxGa1−xAs-GaAs quantum-well heterostructures

Abstract

Data are presented on multilayer Al_xGa_1−xAs‐GaAs quantum‐well heterostructures showing that cw 300–337 °K laser operation is possible at photoexcitation threshold levels (≲1.2×10³ W/cm², J_th≲500 A/cm²) comparable to better LPE double heterojunctions and much lower than all previous single or multiple quantum‐well heterostructures. These quantum‐well heterostructures are grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MO‐CVD) and consist of four 80–90‐Å GaAs active layers coupled by three 80–90‐Å Al_xGa_1−xAs (x∼0.35) barriers, all of which are sandwiched between 1‐ and 0.3‐μm Al_xGa_1−xAs (x∼0.40) confining layers.