Electronic structure and optical gain of InAsPII/GaP(N) quantum dots

The electronic structure and optical gain of InAsPN/GaP(N) quantum dots (QDs) are investigated in the framework of the effective-mass envelope function theory. The strain distribution is calculated using the valence force field (VFF) method. With GaP barrier, for smaller InAsPN QDs, the minimum transition energy may occur at a lower phosphorous (P) composition, but for larger QDs, the transition energy increases as P composition increases due to the increased bandgap of alloy QDs. When the nitrogen (N) composition increases, the transition energy decreases due to the stronger repulsion between the conduction band (CB) and the N resonant band, and the transition matrix element (TME) is more affected by the transition energy rather than N-CB mixing. To obtain laser materials with a lattice constant comparable to Si, we incorporated 2% of N into the GaP barrier. With this GaP(0.98)N(0.02) barrier, the conduction band offset is reduced, so the quantum confinement is lower, resulting in a smaller transition energy and longer wavelength. At the same time, the TME is reduced and the optical gain is less than those without N in the barrier at a low carrier density, but the peak gain increases faster when the carrier density increases. Finally it can surpass and reach a greater saturation optical gain than those without N in the barrier. This shows that incorporating N into GaP barriers is an effective way to achieve desirable wavelength and optical gain. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.