Optical Emission from

Semiconductors

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●
The p–n junction
●
In the process of considering the semiconductor for optical sources,
it is necessary to discuss the properties of semiconductor materials,
especially with regard to the p–n junction.
●
A perfect semiconductor crystal containing no impurities or lattice
defects is said to be intrinsic.
●
The energy band structure of an intrinsic semiconductor is
illustrated in Figure 6.8(a) which shows the valence and conduction
bands separated by a forbidden energy gap or bandgap Eg , the
width of which varies for different semiconductor materials.

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●
Figure 6.8(a) shows the situation in the semiconductor at a temperature above
absolute zero where thermal excitation raises some electrons from the valence
band into the conduction band, leaving empty hole states in the valence band.
●
These thermally excited electrons in the conduction band and the holes left in
the valence band allow conduction through the material, and are called carriers.
●
For a semiconductor in thermal equilibrium the energy-level occupation is
described by the Fermi–Dirac distribution function (rather than the Boltzmann).
●
Consequently, the probability P(E) that an electron gains sufficient thermal
energy at an absolute temperature T, such that it will be found occupying a
particular energy level E, is given by the Fermi–Dirac distribution.
1
P ( E)= …(1)
1+exp (E −E F )/ KT

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● where K is Boltzmann’s constant and EF is known as the Fermi energy
or Fermi level.
●
The Fermi level is only a mathematical parameter but it gives an
indication of the distribution of carriers within the material.
●
This is shown in Figure 6.8(b) for the intrinsic semiconductor where the
Fermi level is at the center of the bandgap, indicating that there is a
small probability of electrons occupying energy levels at the bottom of
the conduction band and a corresponding number of holes occupying
energy levels at the top of the valence band.
●
To create an extrinsic semiconductor, the material is doped with impurity
atoms which create either more free electrons (donor impurity) or holes
(acceptor impurity).
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●
These two situations are shown in Figure 6.9 where the donor impurities form energy
levels just below the conduction band while acceptor impurities form energy levels just
above the valence band.

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●
When donor impurities are added, thermally excited electrons from the donor levels
are raised into the conduction band to create an excess of negative charge carriers
and the semiconductor is said to be n-type, with the majority carriers being electrons.
●
The Fermi level corresponding to this carrier distribution is raised to a position above
the center of the bandgap, as illustrated in Figure 6.9(a).
●
When acceptor impurities are added, as shown in Figure 6.9(b), thermally excited
electrons are raised from the valence band to the acceptor impurity levels leaving an
excess of positive charge carriers in the valence band and creating a p-type
semiconductor where the majority carriers are holes.
●
In this case Fermi level is lowered below the center of the bandgap.
●
The p–n junction diode is formed by creating adjoining p- and n-type semiconductor
layers in a single crystal, as shown in Figure 6.10(a).

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●
A thin depletion region or layer is formed at the junction through carrier
recombination which effectively leaves it free of mobile charge carriers (both
electrons and holes). This establishes a potential barrier between the p- and n-type
regions which restricts the interdiffusion of majority carriers from their respective
regions, as illustrated in Figure 6.10(b).
●
In the absence of an externally applied voltage no current flows as the potential
barrier prevents the net flow of carriers from one region to another.
●
When the junction is in this equilibrium state the Fermi level for the p- and n-type
semiconductor is the same as shown Figure 6.10(b).
●
The width of the depletion region and thus the magnitude of the potential barrier is
dependent upon the carrier concentrations (doping) in the p- and n-type regions
and any external applied voltage.
●
When an external positive voltage is applied to the p-type region with respect to
the n-type, both the depletion region width and the resulting potential barrier are
reduced and the diode is said to be forward biased.
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●
Electrons from the n-type region and holes from the p-type region can flow more
readily across the junction into the opposite type region.
●
These minority carriers are effectively injected across the junction by the
application of the external voltage and form a current flow through the device as
they continuously diffuse away from the interface.
●
However, this situation in suitable semiconductor materials allows carrier
recombination with the emission of light.
●
Spontaneous emission
●
The increased concentration of minority carriers in the opposite type region in the
forward-biased p–n diode leads to the recombination of carriers across the
bandgap.
●
This process is shown in Figure 6.11 for a direct bandgap semiconductor material
where the normally empty electron states in the conduction band of the p-type
material and the normally empty hole states in the valence band of the n-type
material are populated by injected carriers which recombine across the bandgap.
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●
The energy released by this electron–hole recombination is approximately equal
to the bandgap energy Eg .
●
Excess carrier population is therefore decreased by recombination which may be
radiative or nonradiative.
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●
In nonradiative recombination the energy released is dissipated in the form of
lattice vibrations and thus heat.
●
However, in band-to-band radiative recombination the energy is released with the
creation of a photon with a frequency where the energy is approximately equal to
the bandgap energy Eg and therefore:
hc
E g =hf = …(2)
λ
●
where c is the velocity of light in a vacuum and λ is the optical wavelength.
Substituting the appropriate values for h and c in Eq. (2) and rearranging gives:

1.24
λ= …(3)
Eg

where λ is written in μm and Eg in eV.

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●
However, This spontaneous emission of light from within the diode structure is
known as electroluminescence.
●
The light is emitted at the site of carrier recombination which is primarily close to
the junction, although recombination may take place through the hole diode
structure as carriers diffuse away from the junction region as shown in Fig 6.12).
●
However, the amount of radiative, recombination and the emission area within the
structure is dependent upon the semiconductor materials used and the fabrication
of the device.

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●
Stimulated emission and lasing
●
Carrier population inversion is achieved in an intrinsic (undoped) semiconductor by
the injection of electrons into the conduction band of the material.
●
This is illustrated in Figure 6.15 where the electron energy and the corresponding
filled states are shown.

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●
Figure 6.15(a) shows the situation at absolute zero when the conduction band
contains no electrons.
●
Electrons injected into the material fill the lower energy states in the conduction
band up to the injection energy or the quasi-Fermi level for electrons.
●
Since charge neutrality is conserved within the material, an equal density of holes
is created in the top of the valence band by the absence of electrons, as shown in
Figure 6.15(b).
● Incident photons with energy Eg but less than the separation energy of the quasi-
Fermi levels Eq = EFc − EFv cannot be absorbed because the necessary conduction
band states are occupied.
●
However, these photons can induce a downward transition of an electron from the
filled conduction band states into the empty valence band states, thus stimulating
the emission of another photon.

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●
The basic condition for stimulated emission is therefore dependent on the quasi-
Fermi level separation energy as well as the bandgap energy and may be defined
as:
EFc − EFv > hf > Eg

●
However, it must be noted that we have described an ideal situation whereas at
normal operating temperatures the distribution of electrons and holes is less well
defined but the condition for stimulated emission is largely maintained.
●
Population inversion may be obtained at a p–n junction by heavy doping
(degenerative doping) of both the p- and n-type material.
●
Heavy p-type doping with acceptor impurities causes a lowering of the Fermi level
or boundary between the filled and empty states into the valence band.
●
Similarly, degenerative n-type doping causes the Fermi level to enter the
conduction band of the material.

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●
Energy band diagrams of a
degenerate p–n junction are shown
in Figure 6.16.
●
The position of the Fermi level and
the electron occupation (shading)
with no applied bias are shown in
Figure 6.16(a).
●
Figure 6.16(b) shows the p–n
junction when a forward bias nearly
equal to the bandgap voltage is
applied and hence there is direct
conduction.

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●
At high injection carrier density in such a junction there exists an active region near
the depletion layer that contains simultaneously degenerate populations of
electrons and holes (sometimes termed doubly degenerate).
●
For this region the condition for stimulated emission of Eq. (2) is satisfied for
electromagnetic radiation of frequency
Eg / h < f < (EFc− EFv) /h.
●
Therefore, any radiation of this frequency which is confined to the active region will
be amplified.
●
In general, the degenerative doping distinguishes a p–n junction which provides
stimulated emission from one which gives only spontaneous emission as in the
case of the LED.
●
High impurity concentration within a semiconductor causes differences in the
energy bands in comparison with an intrinsic semiconductor.
●
These differences are particularly apparent in the degeneratively doped p–n
junctions used for semiconductor lasers.
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●
Hetero Junctions
●
P-N junctions are classified into different types based on their construction.
●
Homojunction: single p–n junction fabricated from a single-crystal semiconductor
material
●
Hetro Junction: is an interface between two adjoining single crystal semiconductors
with different bandgap energies.
●
Devices which are fabricated with Homojunction are said to have Homostructure
and Devices which are fabricated with heterojunctions are said to have
heterostructure.
●
Heterojunctions are classified into either an isotype (n–n or p–p) or an anisotype
(p–n).
●
The isotype heterojunction provides a potential barrier within the structure which is
useful for the confinement of minority carriers to a small active region (carrier
confinement).
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●
It effectively reduces the carrier diffusion length and thus the volume within the
structure where radiative recombination may take place.
●
This technique is widely used for the fabrication of injection lasers and high-
radiance LEDs.
●
Isotype heterojunctions are also extensively used in LEDs to provide a transparent
layer close to the active region which substantially reduces the absorption of light
emitted from the structure.
●
Alternatively, anisotype heterojunctions with sufficiently large bandgap differences
improve the injection efficiency of either electrons or holes.
●
Both types of heterojunction provide a dielectric step due to the different refractive
indices at either side of the junction.
●
This may be used to provide radiation confinement to the active region (i.e. the
walls of an optical waveguide).
●
The efficiency of the containment depends upon the magnitude of the step which is
dictated by the difference in bandgap energies and the wavelength of the radiation.
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●
When a double-heterojunction (DH) structure
was implemented, the resulting carrier and
optical confinement reduced the threshold
currents necessary for lasing by a factor of
around 100.
●
Stimulated emission was obtained with
relatively small threshold currents (50 to 200
mA).
●
The layer structure and an energy band
diagram for a DH injection laser are
illustrated in Figure 6.18.
●
A heterojunction is shown either side of the
active layer for laseroscillation.
●
The forward bias is supplied by connecting a
positive electrode of a supply to the p side of
the structure and a negative electrode to the
n side. 22 / 36
●
When a voltage which corresponds to the bandgap energy of the active layer is
applied, a large number of electrons (or holes) are injected into the active layer and
laser oscillation commences.
●
These carriers are confined to the active layer by the energy barriers provided by
the heterojunctions which are placed within the diffusion length of the injected
carriers.
●
It may also be observed from Figure 6.18(c) that a refractive index step (usually a
difference of 5 to 10%) at the heterojunctions provides radiation containment to the
active layer.
●
In effect the active layer forms the center of a dielectric waveguide which strongly
confines the electroluminescence within this region, as illustrated in Figure 6.18(c).
●
The refractive index step shown is the same for each heterojunction, which is
desirable in order to prevent losses due to lack of waveguiding which can occur if
the structure is not symmetrical.
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●
The semiconductor injection laser
●
Stimulated emission by the recombination of the injected carriers is encouraged in
the semiconductor injection laser (also called the injection laser diode (ILD) or
simply the injection laser) by the provision of an optical cavity in the crystal
structure in order to provide the feedback of photons.
●
This gives the injection laser several major advantages over other semiconductor
sources (e.g. LEDs) that may be used for optical communications.
●
These are as follows:
1. High radiance due to the amplifying effect of stimulated emission. Injection
lasers will generally supply milliwatts of optical output power.
2. Narrow linewidth on the order of 1 nm (10 Å) or less which is useful in
minimizing the effects of material dispersion.
3. Modulation capabilities which at present extend up into the gigahertz range and
will undoubtedly be improved upon.
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 4. Relative temporal coherence which is considered essential to allow heterodyne
(coherent) detection in high-capacity systems, but at present is primarily of use
in single-mode systems.

5. Good spatial coherence which allows the output to be focused by a lens into a
spot which has a greater intensity than the dispersed unfocused emission.
●
These advantages, together with the compatibility of the injection laser with optical
fibers (e.g. size), led to the early developments of the device in the 1960s.
●
Early injection lasers had the form of a Fabry–Pérot cavity often fabricated in
gallium arsenide which was the major III–V compound semiconductor with
electroluminescent properties at the appropriate wavelength for first-generation
systems.
●
The basic structure of this homojunction device is shown in Figure 6.19,

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●
The cleaved ends of the crystal act as partial mirrors in order to encourage
stimulated emission in the cavity when electrons are injected into the p-type region.
●
These devices had a high threshold current density (greater than 104 A cm−2 ) due
to their lack of carrier containment and proved inefficient light sources.
●
The high current densities required dictated that these devices when operated at
300 K were largely utilized in a pulsed mode in order to minimize the junction
temperature and thus avert damage. 26 / 36
●
Improved carrier containment and thus lower threshold current densities (around
103 A cm−2 ) were achieved using heterojunction structures.
●
The DH injection laser fabricated from lattice-matched III–V alloys provided both
carrier and optical confinement on both sides of the p–n junction, giving the
injection laser a greatly enhanced performance.
●
This enabled these devices with the appropriate heat sinking to be operated in a
CW mode at 300 K with obvious advantages for optical communications (e.g.
analog transmission).
●
However, in order to provide reliable CW operation of the DH injection laser it was
necessary to provide further carrier and optical confinement which led to the
introduction of stripe geometry DH laser configurations.

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●
Stripe geometry
●
The DH laser structure
provides optical confinement
in the vertical direction
through the refractive index
step at the heterojunction
interfaces, but lasing takes
place across the whole width
of the device.

●
Figure 6.20 which shows the broad-area DH laser where the sides of the
cavity are simply formed by roughening the edges of the device in order to
reduce unwanted emission in these directions and limit the number of
horizontal transverse modes.
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●
However, the broad emission area creates several problems including
difficult heat sinking, lasing from multiple filaments in the relatively wide
active area and unsuitable light output geometry for efficient coupling to the
cylindrical fibers.
●
To overcome these problems while also reducing the required threshold
current, laser structures in which the active region does not extend to the
edges of the device were developed.
●
A common technique involved the introduction of stripe geometry to the
structure to provide optical containment in the horizontal plane.
●
The structure of a DH stripe contact laser is shown in Figure 6.21 where the
major current flow through the device and hence the active region is within
the stripe.
●
Generally, the stripe is formed by the creation of high-resistance areas on
either side by techniques such as proton bombardment or oxide isolation.
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●
The stripe therefore acts as a
guiding mechanism which
overcomes the major
problems of the broad-area
device.
●
However, although the active
area width is reduced the light
output is still not particularly
well collimated due to
isotropic emission from a
small active region and
diffraction within the structure.

●
The optical output and far-field emission pattern are also illustrated in Fig 6.21.
●
The output beam divergence is typically 45° perpendicular to the plane of the
junction and 9° parallel to it.
●
Nevertheless, this is a substantial improvement on the broad-area laser. 30 / 36
 ●
Laser modes
●
The typical output spectrum for a
broad-area injection laser is
shown in Figure 6.22(a).
●
It does not consist of a single
wavelength output but a series of
wavelength peaks corresponding
to different longitudinal modes
within the structure.
●
The spacing of these modes is
dependent on the optical cavity
length as each one corresponds
to an integral number of lengths.

●
They are generally separated by a few tenths of a nanometer, and the laser is
said to be a multimode device.
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●
Single-mode operation
●
For single-mode operation, the optical output from a laser must contain only a
single longitudinal.
●
The spectral width of the emission from the single-mode device is far smaller than
the broadened transition linewidth.
●
To obtain single-mode operation it is then necessary to eliminate all but one of the
longitudinal modes.
●
One method of achieving single longitudinal mode operation is to reduce the length
L of the cavity until the frequency separation of the adjacent modes is larger than
the laser transition linewidth or gain curve.
●
Then only the single mode which falls within the transition linewidth can oscillate
within the laser cavity.
●
single-mode operation may be obtained through control of the optical cavity length
such that only a single longitudinal mode falls within the gain bandwidth of the
device.
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●
Figure shows a typical output
spectrum for a single mode
device.
●
However, injection lasers with
short cavity lengths (around 50
μm) are difficult to handle and
have not been particularly
successful.

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●
Distributed feedback lasers
●
An elegant approach to
single-frequency operation
which has found widespread
application involves the use of
distributed resonators,
fabricated into the laser
structure to give integrated
wavelength selectivity.

●
The structure which is employed is the distributed Bragg diffraction grating which
provides periodic variation in refractive index in the laser heterostructure
waveguide along the direction of wave propagation so that feedback of optical
energy is obtained through Bragg reflection rather than by the usual cleaved
mirrors. 34 / 36
●
Corrugated grating structure shown in Figure 6.31(a) determines the wavelength of
the longitudinal mode emission instead of the Fabry–Pérot gain curve shown in
Figure 6.31(b).
● When the period of the corrugation is equal to l λB / 2ne , where l is the integer order
of the grating, λB is the Bragg wavelength and ne is the effective refractive index of
the waveguide, then only the mode near the Bragg wavelength λB is reflected
constructively (i.e. Bragg reflection).
●
As shown in Fig 6.31(a), this particular mode will lase while the other modes
exhibiting higher losses are suppressed from oscillation.
●
First-order gratings (i.e. l = 1) provide the strongest coupling within the device.
●
Second-order gratings are sometimes used as their larger spatial period eases
fabrication.
●
Semiconductor lasers employing the distributed feedback mechanism can be
classified into two broad categories, referred to as the distributed feedback (DFB)
laser and the distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser.
●
These two device structures are shown schematically in Figure 6.32. 35 / 36
●
In the DFB laser the optical
grating is usually applied over
the entire active region which is
pumped, whereas
●
in the DBR laser the grating is
etched only near the cavity ends
and hence distributed feedback
does not occur in the central
active region.

●
The unpumped corrugated end regions effectively act as mirrors whose
reflectivity results from the distributed feedback mechanism which is
therefore dependent on wavelength.
●
Both DBR and DFB lasers are used to provide single-frequency
semiconductor optical sources. 36 / 36