Semiconductor structure having a virtual diffraction grating

摘要

Semiconductor structure having a virtual diffraction grating. This structure comprises an intermediate semiconductor layer (4) between two other semiconductor layers (6,8) having opposite dopings and on one side of the intermediate layer a periodic arrangement or layout (12,14) able to spatially modulate the distribution of the charge carriers or the electric field in said intermediate layer when an electric current is injected into the p-n junction formed by the two other layers or said junction is reverse biased. The periodic arrangement is located in one of the first and second semiconductor layers and is constituted by a sequence of first semiconductor zones having a doping below 1019 cm-3 and of the opposite type to that of the semiconductor layer in which the periodic arrangement is located, alternating with second semiconductor zones having the same doping type as that of the semiconductor layer in which the periodic arrangement is located. Application to distributed feedback laser diodes or distributed Bragg reflectors.