DC Bias Dependent Dynamic Properties of Injection Lasers (Part B)

Abstract

<p> It was observed that the spontaneous carrier lifetimes of GaAlAs injection lasers, as measured by the time delay method, exhibit a strong dependence on the DC bias current flowing through the laser. As the DC bias current is increased, the measured lifetimes decrease, passing through a minimum at bias currents less than 0.1 mA, and then rise again to an intermediate value at high bias currents. It was also found that the impedance of these lasers to fast current pulses drops sharply at the same DC bias currents as the minimum measured lifetime mentioned above. Evidence is presented to suggest that both of these effects are due to an electrical resonance between the stray drive circuit inductance and the DC bias dependent capacitance of the laser's junction under forward bias. </p> <p> In addition, two methods of determining the spontaneous carrier lifetime by other than the time delay method are described. One method involves measurement of the vector impedance of lasers to sinusoidal drive currents at frequencies less than 100 MHz, as a function of DC bias. The second method is based upon the frequency dependence of the phase shift between a sinusoidal drive current and the resulting spontaneous light. </p>