Estimation of relative defect densities in InGaN laser diodes by induced absorption of photoexcited carriers

Reduced Auger Coefficient through Efficient Carrier Capture and Improved Radiative Efficiency from the Broadband Optical Cavity: A Mechanism for Potential Droop Mitigation in InGaN/GaN LEDs

Efficiency droop at high carrier-injection regimes is a matter of concern in InGaN/GaN quantum-confined heterostructure-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Processes such as Shockley-Reed-Hall and Auger recombinations, electron-hole wavefunction separation from polarization charges, carrier leakage, and current crowding are identified as the primary contributors to efficiency droop. Auger recombination is a critical contributor owing to its cubic dependence on carrier density, which can not be circumvented using an advanced physical layout. Here, we demonstrate a potential solution through the positive effects from an optical cavity in suppressing the Auger recombination rate. Besides the phenomenon being fundamentally important, the advantages are technologically essential. The observations are manifested by the ultrafast transient absorption pump-probe spectroscopy performed on an InGaN/GaN-based multi-quantum well heterostructure with external DBR mirrors of varying optical confinement. The optical confinement modulates the nonlinear carrier and photon dynamics and alters the rate of dominant recombination mechanisms in the heterostructure. The carrier capture rate is observed to be increasing, and the polarization field is reducing in the presence of optical feedback. Reduced polarization increases the effective bandgap, resulting in the suppression of the Auger coefficient. Superluminescent behavior along with enhanced spectral purity in the emission spectra in presence of optical confinement is also demonstrated. The improvement is beyond the conventional Purcell effect observed for the quantum-confined systems.

Performance improvement of InGaN-based laser grown on Si by suppressing point defects

High performance InGaN-based laser diodes (LDs) monolithically grown on Si is fundamentally interesting and highly desirable for photonics integration on Si platform. Suppression of point defects is of crucial importance to improve the device performance of InGaN-based LDs grown on Si. This work presents a detailed study on the impact of point defects, such as carbon (C) impurities and gallium vacancies (V_Ga), on the device characteristics of InGaN-based LDs grown on Si. By suppressing the V_Ga-related defect within the waveguide layers, reducing the thermal degradation of InGaN-based quantum wells, and controlling the C impurity concentrations within the thick p-type cladding layers, the as-fabricated InGaN-based LDs grown on Si exhibited a significantly reduced threshold current density of 2.25 kA/cm² and an operation voltage of 4.7 V.

C. SK, Aggarwal N, Gupta G. Carrier relaxation dynamics in defect states of epitaxial GaN/AlN/Si using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy

Carrier relaxation dynamics through the defect levels in an epitaxial GaN/AlN/Si have been analysed on the femto–picosecond timescale, using ultrafast-transient absorption spectroscopy.

Stimulated emission in GaN-based laser diodes far below the threshold region

We identify that the stimulated emission of GaN laser diodes (LDs) emerges far below the traditionally recognized threshold from both optical and electrical experiments. Below the threshold, the linear-polarized stimulated emission has been the dominating part of overall emission and closely related to resonant cavity. Its intensity increases super linearly with current while that of spontaneous emission increases almost linearly. Moreover, the separation of quasi-Fermi levels of electrons and holes across the active region has already exceeded the photon emission energy, namely, realized the population-inversion.