Bull. Mater. Sci., Vol. 13, Nos l & 2, March 1990, pp. 151- 159. ~, Printed in India.

Semiconductor lasers for optical communication

A K SRIVASTAVA
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Homi Bhabha Road, Bombay 400 005. India
Abstract. Recent progress in the development of semiconductor lasers for optical-fibre
communication is reviewed. GalnAsP buried heterostructure and distributed feedback
structure, are described in some detail. An overview of the novel GalnAsSb mid-infrared
(2-4 microns) lasers is also presented,
Keywords. Optical communication; semiconductor lasers; double heterostructure laser:
buried heterostructure; distributed feedback structure.

1. Introduction

Recent years have seen considerable progress in the area of optoelectronic devices
which are to be used in the optical fibre communication systems. State-of-the-art
silica fibres have minimum dispersion and transmission loss (0.2 dB/km) at 1.3 and
1.55 ~m wavelength respectively (figure l j. Semiconductor emitters and detectors
operating at these wavelengths are therefore very important. G a l n A s P lasers having
very low threshold currents for continuous wave ICW) operation at room temperature
have been successfully developed for these wavelengths. More recently, optical fibres
made of heavy-metal fluoride glasses are predicted to have transmission losses one to
two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the best silica fibres. The minimum loss in
these materials is expected to occur at the mid-infrared wavelengths 12-4 llm)l Lines
1984; Tran et al 1984). Optoelectronic materials and devices for these wavelengths
are currently being investigated. GalnAsSb lasers for 2.2 llm wavelength have been
demonstrated recently. This rcvicw will locus on semiconductor lasers. After a brief
introduction to the double hetcrostructure, some of the important laser structures
like buried heterostructures (BHI and distributed feedback ~DFB) structure, which
have been realised using GalnAsP, will be described. Finally, recent progress in
GalnAsSb lasers for mid-infrared wavelengths -~iI1 be summarised.

2. GalnAsP lasers for 1-3 and 1-55 mp wavelength

G a l n A s P lasers are discussed in the following sections (Pearsail 1982; Agrawal and
Dutta 1986).

2.1 Double heterostructure (DH) laser

The basic structure of a p-n junction laser is shown in figure 2a. A pair of parallel
planes are cleaved perpendicular to the plane of the junction. The two remaining
sides of the diode are roughened to eliminate lasing in direction other than the
main one. The structure is called a F a b r y - P e r o t cavity. When a forward bias is
applied to the laser diode, current flows and minority carriers are injected across
the junction. Initially, at low currents, there is spontaneous emission in all
151
152 A K Srivastava

I00
io

T E
~e

I0 ,o z E
w
'0

ih
0
_J
a.

0.1 io°
0.8 1.0 I.Z 1.4 1.6
Wavelength (/~rn) >
Figure I. Attenuation and dispersion characteristics of a single mode silica fibre

Current flow

Coherent (a)
radiation

Current /~ Contact
i / p/~- dielectric
'~/Confinement (b)
Active .~ layers
layer ~ _ Subetrate
Laser Contact
beam

Figure 2. (a) Basic structure of a p-n junction laser in the form of a Fabry Perot
cavity. (b) Structure of a double heterostructure (DH) stripe laser.

directions. As the bias is increased, a threshold current is eventually reached when

the optical gain in the structure is able to overcome the losses and stimulated
emission occurs. A monochromatic and highly directional beam of light is emitted
from the junction under these conditions. For the homostructure, the threshold
current density Jth is very large (~ 5× 104A/cm 2) which makes it impossible to
operate the laser continuously at room temperature.
To reduce the threshold current density, double heterostructure (DH) lasers have
been proposed and built, using epitaxial techniques. Figure 2b shows the schematic
 Semiconductor lasers for optical communication 153

of a typical DH laser. The structure consists of an active layer sandwiched between

two confining layers. All the layers are grown epitaxially and are lattice-matched
to a suitable substrate. The confining layers are chosen to have higher bandgaps
and lower refractive indices than that of the active layer at the operating
wavelength. The p-n junction is incorporated at one of the heterojunctions by
suitably adjusting the doping in the layers. When a forward' bias is applied across
the heterostructure, the injected carriers are confined within the active region by the
heterojunction discontinuities. The optical field is also confined within the active
region by the abrupt reduction in the refractive index outside the active region.
These confinements enhance the stimulated emission and substantially reduce the
threshold current density ( ~ 103A/cm2). For t.3 and 1-55 #m lasers the active region
and the confinement layers consist of quaternary GalnAsP alloy lattice-matched to
an InP substrate (figure 3). The structures are generally grown by liquid phase
epitaxy (LPE) or metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). The
growth of the quaternary layers is rather critical as it is necessary to control the
growth temperature to within a fraction of a degree in the region around 600°C.
This is necessary for reproducible growth of a quaternary layer of given
composition and thickness (~0.1 pm). The stripe structure shown in figure 2b
usually gives multi-transverse modes. For efficient coupling of light to the fibre a
single mode laser is required. This can be achieved by making mesa or ridge-type
structures with 2-5 ym wide ridges. One of the structures that has been successfidl~
used to launch a large amount of power into a single mode fibre is the buried
heterostructure.

2.2 Buried heterostructure laser

Figure 4 shows a schematic of the multiple-infil BH laser structure. The structure is

r-. l 1
2 0 ..... ; .......... i- . . . . . . . . . . . . i °'2
I "-I~ AlSb /
1.6 -~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O.Te
t
I
I 0,89 E
I =L
o. 1.2 - - -t L03

~9
124 .~

~ 08 Gasb . . . . . .
155 o
t.J
2.07

0,4 3.10

6.20
Lattice Constant ( A°)
~ r
..L_
5,6 58 6 0 6.2 6.4

Figure 3. Variation of bandgap energy as a function of lattice-constant for III-V binary

and alloy semiconductors,
154 A K Srivastava

Conto~
/ / / I,P ,u,tpl,

j-°

Wn
i dow V
Figure 4. Schematic of a multiple infill buried heterostructure (BH) laser.

made using two successive epitaxial growth steps. First a D H structure of GalnAsP
is grown on InP (100) substrate. Next, a glassy masking layer is deposited onto the
wafer and this is then photo-engraved leaving thin masking stripes running across
the entire wafer surface. Careful preferential etching then follows which reveals the
slow etching (111) oriented planes of the ridge giving a reduced widt:~ of the waist
( ~ I/am) below the top of the ridge. The active quaternary layer is arranged to
be close to the "waist" of the ridge. The wafer then goes through a second epitaxial
growth stage in which a series of p-type, intrinsic and n-type layers (or one thick
semi-insulating layer) of InP are deposited. These layers stack up the sides of the
ridge to produce a structure with cross-section as shown in figure 4. Thus the
quaternary active layer is cladded above, below and on the sides by layers of lower
refractive index and we have full optical confinement in the vertical and lateral
planes. The multilayers on either side of the active layer incorporate several reverse
biased p-i-n junctions (or the semi-insulating layer) which effectively block the
current spreading and thereby reduce threshold current. These structures have
threshold currents in the range 10-20 mA. The light-current characteristics of a
1.3/~m BH laser is shown in figure 5. These lasers can typically provide 10-20 mW
of power output per facet. The spectrum of a 1.3/~m BH laser is also shown in the
figure. As mentioned earlier, the laser wave-guide i3 designed to support only one
transverse mode in the vertical plane; In the horizontal plane, although in principle
several modes could propagate, scattering at the mesa edges preferentially
attenuates higher order modes and again limits operation to only one mode. The
spectrum therefore indicates single transverse mode with several longitudinal
Fabry-Perot modes separated by ~ 1 0 ~ . The frequency response of BH lasers
shows resonance at ~ 1 0 G H z implying a pulse modulation capability of these
lasers in the Gbit/s region. The spectral linewidth of BH lasers is however rather
large (2-5 ~) which makes it unsuitable for long haul communication systems. Of
the several schemes employed to reduce the spectral width, the most successful one
has been the distributed feedback (DFB) structure.

2.3 Distributed feedback (DFB) structure

The Fabry-Perot cavity consisting of two parallel cleaved facets in the

semiconductor lasers gives rise to several longitudinal modes spread over the gain
 Semiconductor lasers for optical communication 155

w I--

61 C[3
E or"
<
n,. v
i.tJ >.-
I---
o
13_ Z
i.- 4 taJ

2j
t-'-
n Z
i-
t/J
o ,1[I,
n,'
w _J
co
w
n~
J

0 I l I I r _
0 20 40 1.295 1500 12,05 1.310

CURRENT(mA) WAVELENGT (Fm)

Figure 5. Lightoutput vs current curve for a 1'3 #m buried heterostructurelaser. Optical

power spectra for three different power output levels are also indicated in the figure.

curve of the laser (figure 5). These modes seriously limit the distance over which
communication can be made on the optical fibre due to chromatic dispersion.
Ideally one would like to have a single mode very narrow spectral-width laser for
such applications. Reducing the laser length increases the spacing of the Fabry-
Perot modes and is a possible solution but it increases the lasing threshold, makes
fabrication more difficult (typically lasers are 250/~m long) and makes it necessary
to use high reflection coatings on the laser facets. Figure 6a shows the schematic of
a DFB laser which overcomes this problem. The structure is made by etching a
fundamental or second order grating of period 0-2 to 0.4/~m in the material before
growth of the DH structure. As shown in figure 6b an optical wave travelling across
the active region is partially reflected at the peaks and valleys of the grating because
of the change in the effective refractive index sampled by the wave. Only that
wavelength for which this feedback interferes constructively is amplified and the rest
are suppressed. Spectral characteristics of DFB GalnAsP lasers show reduction in
the spectral width (-~0.1 ~,) and nearly total suppression of side bands. In addition,
the incorporation of the grating makes the emission wavelength almost independent
of temperature. These advantages of DFB lasers make them suitable for long
distance communication systems.

3. GalnAsSb lasers for 2-4 l~m wavelength

Figure 7 shows the layer structure of a GalnAsSb, AIGaAsSb DH laser. The layers
of the quaternary alloys GalnAsSb and AIGaAsSb are epitaxially grown on GaSb
substrate. In figure 3 the position of these alloys has been marked on a bandgap
156 A K Srivastava

CONFINI (a)
LAYERS

\
.~ ~ ~ ~ > Tr-Anlzn
-T T -T

nt L nz nt nz

Figure 6. (u) Schematic of a distributed feedback (DFB) laser. (b) Mechanism of

wavelength selection by grating in a DFB laser. Constructive interference takes place for
wavelength 2 satisfying (2n/,~) nA + n = 2n.

// Au- In- Zn
, / ,/TilAglAu
///////// / / / ~ / / / / / / / //'/-~ .-- S i N x

p-AIGoAsSb

p- GoTnAs Sb

n-AI GaAs Sb

n-GaSb: Te Substrate

"////////////dd//////////////, In-Au

Figure 7. Schematic of the cross-section of a GalnAsSb/AlGaAsSb DH laser.

energy vs lattice-constant diagram. As indicated in the figure, the composition of

the GalnAsSb active layer isoperiodic with GaSb can be adjusted to vary the laser
emission wavelength between 1.7 and 4.3 #m. Also indicated in the figure is the
position of AIGaAsSb alloy, lattice-matched to GaSb, which with its higher
bandgap energy and lower refractive index serves as a suitable confinement layer
material.
 Semiconductor lasers for optical communication 157

Several crystal growth techniques (LPE, MOCVD and MBE) have been
employed to grow GalnAsSb on a GaSb substrate. However, the best results have
been obtained by LPE (DeWinter et al 1985). DH lasers have been successfully
grown by LPE on n-type, (100) oriented GaSb substrates in a conventional
horizontal-slider/graphite boat apparatus at 530°C (Caneau et al 1985). Early work
on GalnAsSb/A1GaAsSb DH lasers resulted in room temperature, pulsed Jth values
of 5 kA/cm 2 at 1.8/am wavelength (Kobayashi et al 1980) and CW operation of
2"0/am lasers only at 80 K (Kano and Sugiyama 1980). Room temperature lasers for
longer wavelengths have been reported with Jth values of 14 kA/cm 2 at 2"02/am and
20 kA/cm 2 at 2"29 klm (Bochkarev et al 1985).
Recently, pulsed room temperature 2.2 microns lasers with Jth values as low as
3"5 kA/cm 2 have been reported (Caneau et al 1986a), These lasers operated CW up
to 235 K temperature (Caneau et al 1987). The laser structure used in this work con-
sisted of an active layer of Gao.s4Ino. 16Aso.isSbo.s5 between two AI~,Ga1_:,AsySbl _y
confinement layers, lattice-matched to GaSb substrate. Two compositions for the
confinement layers were used: for one type of structure (DH-I), x=0.27 and
y = 0"04, and for the other (DH-II), x = 0-34 and y = 0'04. Figure 8 shows the light
output vs current (L-l) curve of a DH-I laser with 1/am thick active layer. The
inset shows a low-resolution spectrum of the laser output with a peak wavelength of
2"2/am. For DH-I lasers the lowest Jth value was 6'9 kA/cm 2 and this occurred for
an active layer thickness (d) of 0"8 to 1"0/am, while for DH-II lasers, the optimal
thickness was found to be 0.5/am and resulted in dth value of 3"5 kA/cm 2. The lower
Jth and smaller optimum d values for DH-II lasers as compared to DH-I lasers
result primarily from improved optical confinement by more Al-rich confinement
layers. Further reduction in Jth value (1"7 kA/cm 2) for these lasers has been recently
reported (Caneau et al 1987). Figure 9 shows the L - I curves for DH-II lasers
operated under CW conditions at various temperatures. CW operation was
achieved up to 220 K with a threshold current of 125 mA. The same laser mounted
with improved soldering for more effective heat sinking operated CW at
temperatures up to 235 K. The characteristic temperature To was measured to be
55 K and 80 K for DH-I and DH-II lasers respectively. More recently (Joullie et al
1988), To has been reported to be 90 K for these lasers. Figure 10 shows the

>-

Z
W
}.-
Z
/ I
ROOM
I
TEMPERATURE
I

400 800 1200

CURRENT (mA)

Figure 8. Light intensity vs current characteristics of a GalnAsSb DH laser. Spectrum

shown in the inset peaks at 2.2 ~m; the monochromator resolution, A~., is 0.01 gm.
158 A K Srivastava

i i

15 CWOPERATION
200K 220K

210K ~
I.- IO
Q..
I--
0 5
I--
T
(..9
--1
S I
0 50 I00
CURRENT (mA)

Figure 9. CW light output vs current curves for a DH-II laser at different temperatures.

T = 140K 2 3 8 6 S-12
d= 1/./.m
S = 14/.¢m

F-q

X.A~ 2,023/zm

Figure 10. Emission spectrum of a GalnAsSb stripe laser operated under quasi-CW
conditions at 140 K.

spectrum of a GalnAsSb laser (Caneau et al 1986b) at 140 K. The device was

operated under quasi-CW condition with long current pulses. Two sets of F a b r y -
Perot modes are visible, corresponding to the excitation of the first order in
addition to the fundamental transverse mode.

4. Summary

Considerable progress has been made in the development of semiconductor lasers

 Semiconductor lasers for optical communication 159

for optical-fibre communication. GalnAsP lasers emitting at 1-3 and 1-55~m

wavelength are advanced sufficiently to be included in communication systems. Mid-
infrared GalnAsSb semiconductor lasers with room temperature threshold current
densities as low as 1.7 kA/cm 2 and capable of CW operation at temperatures up to
235 K have been demonstrated. At room temperature these lasers emit at 2"2 ~m
wavelength. The present results show the promise of these lasers for future ultra-low-
loss mid-infrared communication systems.

References

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Reinhold)
Bochkarev A E, Dolginov L M, Drakin A E, Druzhinina L V, Eliseev P G and Sverdlov B N 1985 Sot.
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Lines M E 1984 Science 226 663
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