Theoretical and Experimental Studies on Material Gain for Wide Polar InGaN Quantum Well‐Mechanism Leading to Electric Field Screening and Lasing

Abstract

Abstract The width of polar InGaN quantum wells (QWs) is usually limited to a few nanometers to ensure a sufficient overlap between the wave functions of the ground electron and hole state. This paper presents the results of material gain measurements for thin (2.6 nm), wide (10.4 nm), and extremely wide (25 nm) InGaN QWs. The comparison of experimental data with theoretical predictions allows for correlation of the current density with the carrier concentration, which contributes to the positive material gain, and determination of the coefficients in the standard ABC model. It is shown that the mechanism in wide and narrow polar QWs that leads to electric field screening and lasing is different. For wide QWs, the optical transitions between excited states become dominant in the gain spectrum. The reason for such a gain mechanism is the built‐in electric field, which must first be screened. The ground electron and hole states play a very important role in the screening; however, their contribution to the material gain and lasing in wide QWs is very weak.

Keywords

• InGaN quantum wells
• lasing
• material gain