Article comprising a semiconductor waveguide structure

摘要

The article includes a semiconductor waveguide having a core and a cladding, with the cladding including doped semiconductor material. The doping level is selected such that both the real part n and the imaginary part k of the complex refractive index of the doped material are relatively low, exemplarily n0.5 epsilon infinity 1/2 and k1, where epsilon infinity is the high frequency lattice dielectric constant of the material. Appropriate choice of the doping level can result in improved confinement of the guided radiation without undue increase in the attenuation of the guided radiation. The invention exemplarily is embodied in a long wavelength ( difference 8.5 mu m) quantum cascade laser.