SINGLE QUANTUM WELL LED

摘要

An LED (or SLD) that comprises a single quantum well active layer, and that relies upon gain saturation to prevent lasing. The LED comprises a layered semiconductor structure having a quantum well active layer characterized by a confinement factor, and by a gain versus current density function that includes a gain saturation region. A stripe electrode is formed on a first surface of the structure to define an optical cavity. The optical cavity is characterized by a threshold gain required to produce lasing, the threshold gain being greater than the gain in the gain saturation region. The area of the stripe electrode is selected to produce a current density within the gain saturation region.