Photoexcited resonance-enhanced nitrogen-trap GaAs1-xPx:N laser

Data (77 K) on
x = 0.41
and
x = 0.46
N-doped GaAS
1-x
P
x
are presented showing that the electron-hole recombination probability may be resonantly enhanced when the crystal composition is varied and the
\Gamma
conduction band minimum is made degenerate, or nearly degenerate, with the
A
-line N isoelectronic trap state (
E_{\Gamma} \approx E_{N} \sim 2.0
eV,
x \approx 0.40
). Data on
x = 0.46
GaAs
1-x
P
x
:N suggest that resonant enhancement occurs in a "turning" range
|E_{\Gamma} - E_{N}| \leq 55
meV. A consequence of this work is that photopumped GaAs
1-x
P
x
:N (
x = 0.46
) exhibits laser operation at the unusually high photon energy of 2.032 eV (6100 Å, orange). The idea of resonance-enhanced recombination and the results now demonstrated in GaAs
1-x
P
x
:N are general enough to be applicable also to p-n junctions.