Effect of device impedance on the measurement of carrier lifetime and carrier density in semiconductor lasers

Corroboration of a revised view of recombination in 1.3 /spl mu/m InGaAsP lasers is provided by quantitative measurements of the spontaneous emission imaged through substrate metallization windows. These data exhibit sensitivity to the acceptor concentration in the active layer via the dependence of spontaneous emission intensity on the junction voltage. The data demonstrate explicitly the dependence of the spontaneous emission intensity on the excess hole concentration, accurately described by the bimolecular formula, but contrary to the linear dependence inferred from the analysis of uncorrected lifetime data. This analysis constitutes a DC method for estimating the acceptor concentration in bulk-active lasers.