Abstract

We analyze the effects of the mole fraction variation of III-V heterostructures employed as the active region in an InP-based multi-quantum-well (MQW), long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (LW-VCSEL). The VCSEL model which utilizes an air-post design for electrical current confinement is equipped with GaAs/AlGaAs and GaAs/AlAs top and bottom distributed Bragg reflectors(DBR) mirrors respectively. The changes in the quantum well band-gap energy is evaluated against the laser performance in terms of its threshold current, gain, lasing wavelength and emission power by means of an industrial-based numerical simulator. The simulated device achieved lasing powers up to 4.9 mW with modal gain of 25 cm^-1, lasing wavelength of 1.56 μm and threshold current <0.8 mA for In_1-xGa_xAs_yP_1-y quantum well (QW) and quantum well barrier (QWB) mole fraction of x_QW = 0.24, y_QW = 0.82, x_QWB = 0.52 and y_QWB = 0.82. Results from this work is beneficial for optical design engineers to determine the appropriate material to be used in the active region of a LW-VCSEL.

Key words: LW-VCSEL, mole fraction, wafer-fused, multi-quantum-well, InGaAsP.