Suppression of Recombination in the Waveguide of a Laser Heterostructure by Means of Double Asymmetric Barriers

Abstract

A semiconductor-laser design is proposed in which parasitic recombination in the waveguide region is suppressed by means of double asymmetric barriers adjacent to the active region. Double asymmetric barriers block the undesirable transport of one type of charge carrier while allowing the transport of the other type of carrier. The spacer in the double asymmetric barrier can serve to compensate the elastic strain introduced by the barrier layers as well as to control the energy spectrum of charge carriers and, thus, the transmission coefficient. By the example of a laser with Al_0.2Ga_0.8As waveguide layers, it is shown that the design with double asymmetric barriers makes it possible to suppress undesirable electron transport by a factor of 4 in comparison to the design using single asymmetric barriers.