(GaIn)(NAsSb): MBE GROWTH, HETEROSTRUCTURE AND NANOPHOTONIC DEVICES

Dilute nitride GaInNAs and GaInNAsSb alloys grown on GaAs have quickly become excellent candidates for a variety of lower cost 1.2–1.6 μm lasers, optical amplifiers, and high power Raman pump lasers that will be required in the networks to provide high speed communications to the desktop. Because these quantum well active regions can be grown on GaAs , the distributed mirror technology for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers coupling into waveguides and fibers and photonic crystal structures can be readily combined with GaInNAsSb active regions to produce a variety of advanced photonic devices that will be crucial for advanced photonic integrated circuits. GaInNAs ( Sb ) provides several new challenges compared to earlier III–V alloys because of the limited solubility of N , phase segregation, nonradiative defects caused by the low growth temperature, and ion damage from the N plasma source. This paper describes progress in overcoming some of the material challenges and progress in realizing record setting edge emitting lasers, the first VCSELs operating at 1.5 μm based on GaInNAsSb and integrated photonic crystal and nanoaperture lasers.