Principles of AlGaAs Laser Diodes

Author: Dr. Matthias Pospiech and Sha Liu

In the double heterostructure, stimulated emission occurs only within a thin active layer of GaAs,
which is sandwiched between p- and n- doped AlGaAs layers that have a wider band gap. Laser
diodes use heterojunctions to achieve simultaneous carrier and photon confinement in the active
region. A high laser efficiency demands that the light and injected charge carriers be confined as
closely as possible to the same volume.

Heterostructure of a Laser Diode

As illustrated in Figure 7, the AlGaAs Laser Diode consists of a double heterojunction formed
by an undoped (or lightly p-doped) active region surrounded by higher bandgap p and n AlxGa1-
xAs cladding layers. The surrounding cladding layers provide an energy barrier to confine
carriers to the active region. The actual operation wavelengths may range from 750 - 880 nm
due to the effects of dopants, the size of the active region, and the compositions of the active
and cladding layers. When a certain parameter is fixed, the wavelength can vary in several
nanometers due to other variables. For example, when the active layer has an energy gap Eg =
1.424 eV, the nominal emission wavelength is λ = hc/Eg = 871 nm. When a bias voltage is
applied in the forward direction, electrons and holes are injected into the active layer. Since the
band gap energy is larger in the cladding layers than in the active layer, the injected electrons
and holes are prevented from diffusing across the junction by the potential barriers formed
between the active layer and cladding layers (Figure 7). The electrons and holes confined to the

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 active layer create a state of population inversion, allowing the amplification of light by
stimulated emission.

The cladding layers serve two functions. First, inject charge carriers. Second, light confinement.
Since the active region has a smaller bandgap than the cladding layers, its refractive index will
be slightly larger than that of the surrounding layers. The GaAs refractive index at these
wavelengths is n = 3.5 while the refractive index of the AlxGa1-xAs cladding layers is slightly
smaller. The Figure 8 indicates the electromagnetic field distribution due to the heterostructure.

For the confinement in the horizontal (lateral) direction, in real laser structures, index or gain
guiding is always used, as mentioned in section 3.1. The characteristics of a three-layer slab
waveguide are conveniently described in terms of the normalized waveguide thickness
(frequency) D, defined as

2𝜋𝑑
𝐷= (𝑛 − 𝑛 )
𝜆

Where, na and nc are the refractive indices of the active and cladding layers respectively and d is
the active layer thickness. The confinement factor Γ, defined as the fraction of the electromagnetic
energy of the guided mode that exists within the active layer, is an important parameter
representing the extent to the active layer. Γ for a fundamental mode is approximately given by

2.2 Threshold Current

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When a sufficient number of electrons and holes are accumulated to form an inverted population,
the active region exhibits optical gain and can amplify electromagnetic waves passing through
it, since stimulated emission overcomes interband absorption. The wave makes a full round trip
in the cavity without attenuation, which means that the optical gain should equal the losses both
inside the cavity and through the partially reflecting end facets. Thus, the laser diode gain
coefficient at threshold current point is given

1 1 1 1
Γ𝑔 = Γ𝛼 + (1 − Γ)𝛼 + 𝛼 + ln = 𝛼 + ln
𝐿 𝑅 𝐿 𝑅

Here, 𝛼 and 𝛼 denote the losses in the active and cladding layers respectively, due to free-
carrier absorption. 𝛼 accounts for scattering loss due to hetero-interfacial imperfections
between the active and cladding layer. The first three loss terms on the right-hand side combined
are termed internal loss 𝛼 and add up to 10 to 20 cm-1. The reflection loss ln ≈
40 𝑐𝑚 for L (resonator length) ≈ 300 µm, R (reflectance) = 0.3, due to output coupling is
normally the largest among the loss terms.

There is a phenomenological linear relationship between the maximum gain g and the injected
carrier density n, supposing and 𝑛 are constant to a good approximation.

𝜕𝑔
𝑔(𝑛) = (𝑛 − 𝑛 )
𝜕𝑛

Gain with injected current density.

Here, is termed differential gain, and 𝑛 denotes the carrier density required to achieve
transparency where stimulated emission balances against interband absorption corresponding to
the beginning of population inversion.

Taking GaAs lasers as an example, ≈ 3.5 × 10 𝑐𝑚 and 𝑛 ≈ 1.5 × 10 𝑐𝑚 and

-1 -1 -1 -1
remember, Γ = 0.27, α =10cm and L ln R = 40 cm , we get a threshold carrier density n ≈
2 x 1018cm-3.

𝑔 = (𝑛 − 1.5 × 10 ) × 3.5 × 10

Again,

50
0.27 × 𝑔 = 10 + 40 = 50 ⇒ 𝑔 = = 185.18
0.27

Hence,

185.18 = (𝑛 − 1.5 × 10 ) × 3.5 × 10

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 185.18
⇒𝑛= + 1.5 × 10 ≈ 2.3 × 10 𝑐𝑚
3.5 × 10

The threshold current density Jth is expressed as

𝑒𝑑𝑛
𝐽 =
𝜏

Where 𝜏 is the carrier lifetime due to spontaneous emission. Assuming that 𝜏 = 3 𝑛𝑠, 𝑑 =
0.1 𝜇𝑚, we obtain a threshold current density 𝐽 = 1.0 𝑘𝐴. 𝑐𝑚 .

Oscillation Modes

In laser diodes, length determines longitudinal modes where width and height of the cavity
determines transverse or lateral modes.

Longitudinal modes of a laser diode

Longitudinal Mode: The longitudinal modes, or optical resonances of the Fabry-Perot formed
by the cleaved facet end mirrors, are determined by the length L of the resonator and the
refractive index n of the semiconductor. For electromagnetic wave of wavelength λ, the half-
wavelength in the medium is , and for a standing wave, = 𝐿, q is the integral multiple.
Variation of the integer q by 1, causes a wavelength variation, Δλ of 0.35 nm, and the laser

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 resonator may simultaneously support several standing waves, or longitudinal modes, of slightly
different wavelength. In a laser diode, the oscillation arises at the wavelength corresponding to
the band gap energy of the semiconductor, the intensity decreases as the wavelength goes far
away from the central wavelength, as indicated in Figure 9. Since the band gap energy varies
with temperature, the wavelength with maximum intensity also varies with temperature. For
example, the AlGaAs laser diode, the wavelength increases by approximately 0.23 nm for an
increase in temperature of 1 degree. The free spectral range ffsr is defined as

1 1 𝑐Δ𝜆 𝑐
𝑓 = 𝑓 −𝑓 = 𝑐 − = =
𝜆 𝜆 𝜆 2𝑛𝐿

The peak separation is defined as

𝑐
Δ𝜆 = 𝜆 − 𝜆 = 𝜆 − 𝑐
+𝑓
𝜆

Figure 9 is an example with the center wavelength λ = 817.5 nm and the peak separation Δ𝜆 =
0.45 𝑛𝑚, the free spectral range 𝑓 = = 200 𝐺𝐻𝑧.

Transverse Modes: The transverse mode represents the state of the electromagnetic standing
wave in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the laser resonator. The transverse
mode has two components, one parallel and the other perpendicular to the active layer of the

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 laser. As stated above, there exist steps in the refractive index on each side of the active layer,
which serve to confine the light to the active layer. The laser beam displays a diverging field
due to the diffraction at the ends of the cavity. Fig 10 shows the construction of a typical index
guided laser diode with cladding layers, electrodes, and GaAs active region. The laser cavity
mirrors are the end facets of the semiconductor crystal, which has been cleaved.

The dimensions of the crystal determine the pattern of the emitted beam (the transverse mode
pattern) and also the possible laser emission frequencies (the longitudinal mode pattern). The
output pattern is dominated by diffraction because the width W ≈ 10µm and height H ≈ 2µm of
typical LDs are comparable to the emission wavelength. The divergence angle of the emission
along these two directions is inversely proportional to the dimensions as shown in Fig 11. The
angular width ϑ of the emission pattern from a slit or rectangular opening of width d is divergence
angle of a laser diode

𝜆
𝜃 = 2 sin
𝑑

For example, a laser wavelength of 850 nm and strip width W = 10µm has a divergence angle ϑw ≈
10 deg, ϑH ≈ 45 deg as shown in Fig 11. The dimensions W and H of the active region of a laser
diode can be determined by measuring the output emission cone angles. The smaller the aperture
the greater the diffraction, with a sufficiently small W and H, only the lowest transverse mode
TEM00 exits.

In the further proceedings we are going to take a closer look at different techniques of
constructing a laser diode. The focus thereby is on single mode laser diodes. Single mode waves
are preferred in most cases. The realm of multimode lasers are high power lasers, where single
mode operating is not of importance.

Most modern semiconductor lasers adopt a structure, where the current is injected only within a
narrow region beneath a stripe contact several μm wide, in order to keep the threshold current

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low and to control the optical field distribution in the lateral direction. Compared with broad-
area lasers, where the entire laser chip is excited, the threshold current of lasers with stripe
geometry is reduced roughly proportional to the area of contact. We differ mainly between two
different types of structures. In case that the current injection is restricted to a small region along the
junction plane these are termed gain-guided. Devices incorporating a built-in refractive index
variation in the lateral direction are termed index-guided lasers.

Gain-Guided Lasers

With these lasers the current injection is restricted to a narrow region beneath a stripe. The active
region is planar and continuous. Lasing however occurs only in a limited region of the active
layer beneath the stripe contact where high density of current flows. This horizontal confinement
of the em–wave propagating through the active region is thereby accomplished by the small
refractive index variation produced by the current generated population inversion. If the em-
wave spreads in the horizontal plane outside of the horizontal dimensions of the stripe, it will be
absorbed by the unexcited region of the active layer. In the vertical directions the lower
refractive indices of the surrounding layers reflects the em–wave back into the active region.

The current restriction serves several purposes:

 it allows CW operation with reasonable low threshold currents (10-100 mA)

 it can allow fundamental-mode operation along the junction plane, which is necessary for
applications where the em–wave is coupled into a single mode optical fiber
 the requirements for heat sinking are low gain guided laser diode cross-section

Such lasers are determined gain-guided lasers because the optical intensity distribution in the
lateral direction is determined by the gain profile produced by carrier density distribution.