LIGHT-EMITTING DEVICES BASED ON THE REAL-SPACE TRANSFER OF HOT-ELECTRONS

The real-space transfer of hot electrons into semiconductor layers, where the transferred electrons are minority carriers, results in a generation of light by recombination. Based on this principle, several optoelectronic devices of varying degree of complexity are proposed in the present work. In particular, we propose a new class of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers that can be implemented in a number of heterostructures, including long wavelength materials (over 1.5-mu-m). An advantage of these structures is that the injection can be arranged without any current passing through the dielectric mirror stacks forming an optical cavity. Real-space transfer lasers can be used as logic devices with optical output functionally related to two or more electrical inputs.