ABSTRACTWe will present calculations of the ideal performance of mid-infrared InAs/InGaSb superlattice quantum well lasers. For these systems several periods of an InAs/InGaSb type-II superlattice are grown in quantum wells. Calculations of the non-radiative and radiative lifetimes of the carriers utilize the full non-parabolic band structure and momentum-dependent matrix elements calculated from a semi-empirical multilayer K · P theory. From these lifetimes, threshold current densities have been evaluated for laser structures. We find serious problems with the hole and electron confinement in the superlattice quantum wells grown to date, and propose a four-layer superlattice structure which corrects these problems.
Tunable band gap inversion in broken gap quantum wells