Semiconductor Lasers: from Homojunctions to Quantum Dots

Peter G. Eliseev
CHTM/UNM, Albuquerque, NM and
Lebedev Physics Institute, Moscow, Russia

Retrospective review is presented of the development of physics and technology of semiconductor laser beginning from early theoretical proposals made in the late fifties up to recent ultra-low-threshold quantum dot laser studies. The threshold current density at room temperature was 10⁵–10⁶ A/cm² in 1963 and has been improved up to now to ~10 A/cm². The main factors that provided this progress are considered. The laser diodes are the most efficient sources of the coherent light. The mechanisms of energy conversion determining the high efficiency of semiconductor lasers are discussed.

This lecture is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Academician Nikolai G. Basov (1922–2001), the Nobel laureate for foundation and achievements in Quantum Electronics (1964).

Author: Prof. P. G. Eliseev has been with the Center for High Technology Materials, UNM, since 1995. His fields of scientific activity are semiconductor physics and quantum electronics. Particularly, he has been engaged in semiconductor laser physics and technology since 1962. He had participated in the first Russian laser physics projects and had performed pioneering works on lasers on the basis of different materials and different techniques of excitation. The most important works are introduction of InGaAsP/InP and InGaAsSb/GaSb heterojunction lasers, demonstration and interpretation of nonlinear mode interaction and other nonlinear effects in lasers, demonstration of optoelectronic signal in semiconductor optical amplifiers, etc. At present, he is working on quantum-dot lasers and on computer modeling of laser diodes.

He is the correspondent member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, senior member of IEEE, member of OSA, and Russian Physical Society.

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