High-performance 1.3 μm AlGaInAs/InP strained quantum well lasers grown by organometallic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract In this paper, we show that by using the AlGaInAs/InP instead of the GaInAsP/InP materials system, 1.3 μm lasers with excellent high temperature performance can be fabricated, and report on the optimization of the growth conditions. Compressive strained five-quantum-well AlGaInAs/InP lasers showed only a 0.3 dB change in differential quantum efficiency for a temperature change from 25 to 100°C and a large small-signal modulation bandwidth of 8.6 GHz even at 85°C. Tensile-strained three-quantum-well lasers exhibited a 0.63 dB change in differential quantum efficiency for a temperature change from 25 to 100°C. At a heat sink temperature of 25°C the maximum 3 dB modulation bandwidth, limited by heating, was 19.6 GHz for compressive-strained lasers and 17 GHz for tensile-strained lasers. In spite of the Al-containing active layer, no catastrophic optical damage was observed at room temperature up to the highest powers obtained, 218 mW for the compressive and 103 mW for the tensile strained lasers. Preliminary life tests indicated that these lasers are at least as reliable as conventional GaInAsP/InP lasers, with the mean-time-to-failure being 110 years at 85°C. These data indicate that AlGaInAs/InP lasers are attractive for uncooled and low-cost applications, such as fiber-in-the-loop (FITL).