Effect of the lateral carrier leakage on performance of 1.3 μm InGaAsP MQW CMBH lasers

The effects of lateral leakage current on the performance of 1.3 μm multiple quantum well lasers were discussed. Structures with different mesa widths were grown on one wafer using a specially designed mask. Net modal gain and optical losses were studied using a spatial filtering technique to understand the nature of difference in threshold current densities and external efficiency. The contribution of the lateral leakage to threshold current was also estimated. higher threshold current density was obtained for lasers with narrower mesa width and nonzero lateral leakage. The experimental values of internal efficiency for 1 μm and 100 μm devices were found to be close to unity.