Fourier transform infrared surface photovoltage spectroscopy for the investigation of mid-infrared semiconductor lasers

✍ Scribed by Sharma, Tarun K. ;Fox, Natasha E. ;Hosea, T. J. C.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 479 KB
• Volume: 206
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-8965
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.200881413

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A novel application of the surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS) technique, using a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) interferometer, has been developed for the investigation of narrow‐gap mid‐infrared semiconductor quantum well (QW) laser structures. We demonstrate the FTIR‐SPS technique at room temperature for a GaInSb/AlGaInSb type I QW laser structure, grown on GaAs, emitting in the mid‐infrared at ∼4 μm, revealing an unambiguous detection of the ground and excited state transitions of the GaInSb QW, as well as the AlGaInSb barrier bandgap energy. As a further corroboration of the new technique, the FTIR‐SPS spectrum of a ∼1.5 μm communication laser structure has also been measured and shown to be in good agreement with conventional grating‐based electro‐modulated reflectance and SPS spectroscopic measurements on this sample. A detailed numerical analysis of the room temperature FTIR‐SPS results for the mid‐infrared semiconductor laser structure is also presented, including a comparison with theoretical predictions of the QW transition energies. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)