Evaluation of the DC performance of the multiple

quantum-wells AlGaAs/GaAs VCSEL

Hamida Djelti#1, Mounir Khelladi*2, Fayza Bousalah*3, Yamina Belhadef*4
#
STIC laboratory, Department of Telecommunication, University Abou Bekr Belkaid of Tlemcen
Faculty of Technology, University of Tlemcen, BP 230 Tlemcen, Algeria
1
[email protected]
*
Department of Telecommunication, Faculty of Technology, University Abou Bekr Belkaid of Tlemcen
2
[email protected]
3
[email protected]
4
[email protected]

Abstract— This paper presents the static performances of the using n-type InGaAsP/InP DBRs on n-InP substrate has
Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) emitting in demonstrated 1-mW CW output power at room temperature
the third optical window (1,55 m wavelength). We will focus on [9]. Alternatively, using GaN and its material systems as the
the thermal effect on the static characteristics on the p- active layer can realize green to UV emitting lasers. Reports
GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells based VCSELs. Due to their small on the reliability performance of GaN-based LEDs and facet
footprint and low power consumption VCSELs are promising emitting lasers indicate that blue or shorter wavelength
sources for photonic integrated circuits, optical sensing and data emission can also be realized in VCSELs [10]. It is possible to
communication and sensing that emit at 850–1550 nm
fabricate monolithic growth VCSELs using AlGaN/GaN
wavelength. In this work, device simulated consist of the
InGaAsP quaternary material is used as the active region which
DBRs, Continuous wave operation of GaN/InGaN micro disk
is sandwiched between the GaAs/AlGaAs distributed Bragg lasers at 300K [11] and electrical injection of GaN-based
mirror at the top of the structure and the GaAs/AlAs distributed VCSELs at 77K [12] have also been demonstrated.
Bragg mirror at the bottom of the structure. In this way, the Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are key
threshold voltage decrement of 5 % and decrement the optical optical sources in optical communications. The dominant
power by almost 5%, the maximum of the temperature is 317 K source deployed in local area networks (LAN) using
under the applied anode voltage equal to 3 V. multimode optical fibers at 850 nm [13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19].
The advantages of VCSELs include wafer-scale testing, low-
Keywords— VCSEL, AlGaAs, InGaAsP, AlAs, MQW cost packaging, and ease of fabrication into arrays [20].
850-nm VCSEL was first commercialized driven by
I. INTRODUCTION applications such as Ethernet, Infini Band and Fiber Channel.
Historically, Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers On the other hand, from metro and access networks, long-
(VCSELs), as its name implies, emits vertically, normal to the wavelength VCSELs operating at 1300-nm and 1550-nm are
plane of the device, owing to cavity mirrors grown within the developed due to the low absorption loss and dispersion
epitaxial material itself. Was pioneered by Kenichi Iga and al. distortion in optic fibers. In comparison to short wavelength
at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Starting in the late VCSELs, the progress of high-speed long-wavelength
1970‘s with an electrically pumped laser operating at 77 K VCSELs was slow due to inherent material issues of the InP-
emitting 1.2 pm wavelength [1]. The first GaAs based based system. These challenges include intrinsic poor thermal
VCSELs operating in continuous wave (CW) mode at room conductivity as well as difficulties in finding good DBR
temperature were demonstrated at the end of the 1980s [2] and candidates with appropriate refractive indices difference.
InP-based devices at the beginning of the 1990s [3]. The room The different growth and emission characteristics of VCSELs,
temperature pulsed operation has been achieved in 1984 [4], compared to edge-emitting lasers, give advantages when it
and continuous-wave (CW) at room temperature operation in comes to testing the samples during the fabrication steps. Tens
1988 [5]. One years later, they also demonstrated the first of thousands of VCSELs can also be processed in parallel on a
room temperature CW GaAs VCSEL emitting at 850 nm [6]. wafer.
980-nm VCSEL with GaAs/AlGaAs distributed Bragg VCSELs are also promising sources for photonic integrated
reflectors (DBRs) and selective oxide configuration has circuits due to their small footprint and low power
demonstrated a very low threshold current of 8.5 μA [7]. The consumption. Also, VCSELs are commonly used for a wide
1300-nm InGaAsP VCSEL with n-type InGaAsP/InP mirror variety of applications in the consumer electronics market.
and SiO2/Si mirror on the p side demonstrates a threshold These applications range from laser mice to three-dimensional
current of 500 mA under pulsed operation at room (3D) sensing and imaging, including various 3D movement
temperature [8]. Fabrication of 1550-nm InP QW VCSEL detections, such as gesture recognition or face recognition.
Novel VCSEL types will include meta structures, exhibiting
additional unique properties, of largest importance for next- (5)
generation data communication, sensing, photonic integrated Where C is the heat capacitance per unit volume, κ is the
circuits, atomic clocks, laser cooling, interferometers, light thermal conductivity, H is the heat generation and TL is the
detection and ranging (LIDARs) [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26]. local lattice temperature.
In this work, we address the problem to study the thermal The heat capacitance can be expressed as C = ρCp, where Cp
effect on the static performance of VCSEL cavity laser with is the specific heat and ρ is the density of the material.
six quantum well In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18. Also, we examine the
DBR mirror effect on the P-V characteristics of this device. III. VCSEL CAVITY STRUCTURE
The following section shows the both physical and numerical The VCSEL Direct-Current (DC) characteristics were
model of the VCSEL cavity laser devices. Section IV and V analysed and simulated using a Drift-Diffusion transport
show the simulation results and conclusion. model (Poisson and continuity equations) are solved self-
consistently with the Helmholtz Equation, Lattice Heat Flow
II. PHYSICAL AND NUMERICAL MODEL OF THE VCSEL Equation of industry standard software Atlas from Silvaco
The electrical and optical phenomena play a tremendous [27], along with the devices dimensions and material of
role in the semiconductor lasers such as the VCSEL structure. various layers used is presented in Fig. 1. This structure
The external electrical and optical characteristics of the consists of GaAs substrate. The active region consists of six
VCSEL cavity are strongly linked of the internal electrical and quantum wells In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18 and seven barrier
optical properties of the semiconductors materials used in the In0.48Ga0.25As0.82P0.18 with a thickness of 5,5 nm and 8 nm,
fabrication of the device. Significant role, for calculation of respectively [29]. The top DBR mirror is 30 layers of
the corresponding properties quantum mechanics should be GaAs/Al0.33Ga0.67As and the bottom mirror has 28 layers of
applied. This is the fact for QW-regions, and thus we will GaAs/AlAs.
consider quantum mechanics effects.
To predict the electrical and optical performance of the
VCSEL diode, it is very important to take into account
interaction of optical, electrical, and thermal phenomena that
occur during the VCSEL operation.
The equations governing the electrical and optical operation of
the VCSEL diode are Poisson [27], continuity [28], and
Helmholtz equations [29].
Poisson‘s equation relates the electrostatic potential () to the
space charge density ():
(1)
Where ε is the local permittivity.

The continuity equations for electrons and holes are defined

by equations (2) and (3) as follows:

(2)

(3)
Fig. 1 Schematic structure of the MQW VCSEL cavity structure.
Where n and p are the electron and hole concentration, Jn and
Jp are the electron and hole current densities, Gn and Gp are
the generation rates for electrons and holes, Rn and Rp are the Fig.2 shows the diagram of the energy bands of the simulated
recombination rates for electrons and holes, and q is the structure of the VCSEL cavity around the active layer.
magnitude of the charge on an electron. As shown in Fig.2, the diagram of the energy bands seems
The transverse optical field profile Ek(x,y) is determined by very correct because we observe six periods which designate
solving a two-dimensional Helmholtz, expressed as follows: six quantum wells, this quantum wells created by the
association of the two layers, is indeed present at the interface
(4) between both materials (from In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18 and from
In0.48Ga 0.52As0.82P0.18.
Where ω is frequency, ε(r, z, ϕ, ω) is the complex dielectric
permittivity, E(r, z, ϕ) is the optical electric field, and c is the
speed of light in vacuum.
The heat flow equation has the form:
 the confinement in the active region of the photons generated
by recombination of the carriers injected into the quantum
wells.
It can be seen that the maximum value of the current with
thermal effect decrease by about 5% compared to the current
without thermal effect for anode voltage equal to 3 V.
0.06

0.05

0.04

Anode current (A)

0.03

0.02

0.01

Fig.2 Diagram of the energy bands of p-GaAs/AlGaAs VCSEL cavity laser. 0

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS -0.01

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Fig.3 shows the total power emitted versus the anode voltage Anode voltage (V)
for VCSEL cavity laser multiple quantum well
In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18. The anode voltage was swept from 0 V Fig. 4 Thermal (blue) and non-thermal (red) I-V Characteristics of the
VCSEL MQW In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18.
to 3 V. As shown in Fig.3, beyond the threshold in terms of
anode voltage (Vthreshold = 1.18 V) and injection current
(Ithreshold = 1.25 mA), the two curves for thermal and non Fig. 5 shows the evolution of the global device temperature in
thermal model are straight lines. In fact, it is observed that the the VCSEL cavity laser versus the anode voltage. This figure
light emitted varies linearly with the current and the bias shows that the increase in temperature is proportional to the
voltage from the threshold value, the value at which the increase in the polarization of the anode. The maximum
number of carriers is sufficient to emit the stimulated photons. temperature which corresponds to the hot spot is almost 317 K
It can be seen that the maximum value of the power with for anode voltage of 3 V.
thermal effect decrease by about 5% compared to the power
without thermal effect. 318

316
0.045
Global device temperature (K)

314
0.04

312
0.035
Total power emitted (W)

310
0.03

308
0.025

306
0.02

304
0.015

302
0.01

300
0.005 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Anode voltage (V)
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Anode voltage (V) Fig. 5 Global device temperature versus anode voltage of the VCSEL MQW
In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18.
Fig. 3 Thermal (blue) and non thermal (red) P-V Characteristics of the
VCSEL MQW In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18. In order to investigate the effect of the periods number of
DBR top and DBR bottom in VCSEL cavity, Fig. 6 shows the
Fig.4 shows I-V characteristics, current versus anode voltage. P-V characteristics for 32 and 35 periods of GaAs/AlGaAs top
As Fig.4 presents, we can clearly see the anode current distributed-Bragg reflectors (DBR). From Fig.6, the total
increases from the polarization of the anode voltage, threshold power emitted increase with decreasing the number of p-
voltage anode is approximately 1 V. Indeed, beyond the GaAs/AlGaAs pairs. It is noted that to achieve the lasing
threshold, this curve is a straight line, this can be explain by condition in a VCSEL structure for reasonable current
densities, mirrors reflectivity must be at least equal to 99.5 %,
for our simulated VCSEL structure mirrors reflectivity of the
top and bottom DBR mirrors is about 99.84% and 99.80% ,
respectively. Therefore, reflectors with extremely high
reflectivity are needed to support low threshold and high-
output-power VCSELs. Bottom Distributed Bragg reflectors
(DBRs) have been widely used as high-reflectivity mirrors in
VCSELs. DBRs are stacks of materials with different
refractive indices, and the bandwidth of a DBR is determined
by the relation Δn/n, where n is the refractive index and Δn is
the index difference. AlAs and GaAs are ideal bottom DBR
materials for GaAs-based VCSELs. The Δn of these materials
is approximately 0.4. Also, it should be noted that to improve
the characteristics of the Bragg mirrors their reflective powers
and the spectral width "stop-band" it is necessary to choose
the difference of index as high as possible.
Fig. 7 Electric field contour in the VCSEL MQW In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18. cavity
0.04 laser.

0.035
32 periods of GaAs/AlGaAs
35 periods of GaAs/AlGaAs
0.03
Total power emitted (W)

0.025

0.02

0.015

0.01

0.005

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Anode voltage (V)

Fig. 6 Effect of the DBR mirror on the P-V characteristics of the VCSEL
MQW In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18.

In Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, the contour and the variation of the Fig.8 Variation of the electric field in the active region of the VCSEL MQW
electric field in the active region of the VCSEL diode (barrier In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18.
layers and quantum wells) for an anode bias voltage of 3 V are
illustrated, respectively. It is noted in particular that the peak
of the electric field is in the active region and more precisely
in wells four and five, it practically reaches 68 104 V/cm.
The VCSEL multiple quantum-wells laser cavity has the
advantage of having a large inversion zone, and therefore of
gain. The model gain depends to the carrier and photon
number.
Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 shows the light intensity contour and the
evolution of the local optical gain in the active region (barriers
and quantum wells) of the VCSEL cavity laser, respectively.
It is clearly noted that the optical gain is maximum in the first
quantum well then begins to decrease linearly throughout the
active region. However, the optical gain tends to decrease at
high photon densities.

Fig. 9 Light intensity contour in the VCSEL MQW In0.76Ga0.24As0.82P0.18.

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