Recent Progress in Development of GaInNAs- Based Photonic Devices

The GaInNAs/GaAs semiconductor heterostructures have emerged as promising alternatives to InP-based compound semiconductors for the fabrication of 1.3-mum METRO and LAN telecommunications lasers. We shall review the recent advances made in the field of the GaInNAs technology. An emphasis is put on the development of low-threshold double-quantum-well (DQW) and triple-quantum-well (TQW) ridge waveguide lasers (RWG) grown by molecular beam epitaxy. A record slope efficiency of 0.28 W/A and a low threshold current density of 278 A/cm²/QW are demonstrated in this paper for the TQW single-mode lasers. We shall also discuss the first measurements of electron-spin relaxation in dilute nitride quantum-wells. Excitation of spin-polarized electrons is potentially attractive for implementing all-optical polarization switches in a broad wavelength range