Strained AlGaInP Multiple Quantum Wire Lasers Grown By Gas Source Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Experimental research into quantum wire (QWR) semiconductor heterostructures has been motivated primarily by theoretical predictions of performance enhancements in laser applications. The practical advantages of QWR lasers are associated with physical manifestations of the two-dimensional confinement, notably the modification to the density of electronic states. These are expected to lead to lower threshold current densities, narrower spectral linewidths, increased modulation bandwidths, and increased stability. Experimental progress, however, has been hampered by the profound technological difficulties inherent in the realization of manmade structures with such small dimensions (on the order of 100 8, x 100 A). Several methods involving either vicinal (slightly off-axis) or patterned substrates, or the processing of quantum well heterostructures into QWR structures have been investigated [1], but success has thus far been limited by processing defects and geometrical constraints.