STRUCTURES FOR IMPROVED 1.5 MU-M WAVELENGTH LASERS GROWN BY LP-OMVPE-INGAAS-INP STRAINED-LAYER QUANTUM-WELLS A GOOD CANDIDATE

InGaAs/InP strained-layer MQW lasers are theoretically predicted to exhibit enhanced performance over lattice matched MQW lasers as a result of the strain-induced reduction of non-radiative recombination processes in the structures. The LP-OMVPE growth of abrupt lattice matched InGaAsP/InP QWs has been optimized and high quality In0.8Ga0.2As/InP strained layers (1.8% biaxial compression) have been grown. The multiple line PL emissions at 1.5 K from single wells indicate atomically smooth and abrupt interfaces with monolayer well width variations. However, the critical thickness of strained-layer QWs was found to decrease when grown on substrates with increasing misorientation from the (001) plane. In0.8Ga0.2As/InGaAsP strained-layer MQW lasers emitting at 1.55-mu-m were fabricated. Excellent properties such as CW output powers as high as 200 mW, an extremely high differential external efficiency of 82%, threshold current as low as 10 mA and a T0 value as high as 97 K were obtained.