THEORETICAL CALCULATION OF OPTICAL GAIN IN INXGA1-XAS/INP QUANTUM-WELLS UNDER BIAXIALLY COMPRESSIVE AND TENSILE STRAIN

We calculated the well-plane valence band structures and the optical gain in InxGa1-xAs/InP quantum wells under both biaxially compressive and tensile strain using 4 x 4 Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian matrix [Phys. Rev. 97, 869 (1955)]. We show that tensile strain can improve the 1.5-mu-m laser performance as well as compressive strain due to the high joint density of states and the large TM-mode optical matrix element between the ground-state conduction and light-hole subbands.