Resonant cavity enhanced InAs/GaAsSb SLS LEDs with a narrow spectral linewidth and a high-spectral intensity operating at 4.6 μm

We investigated the design, growth, fabrication, and characterization of InAs/GaAsSb SLS resonant cavity light emitting diodes (RCLEDs) grown on InAs by molecular beam epitaxy. The structure consists of a 1λ-thick micro-cavity positioned between two lattice-matched AlAsSb/GaAsSb distributed Bragg reflector mirrors (DBRs). A 44-pair InAs/GaAsSb SLS active region is placed at the antinode of the electric field intensity in the center of the cavity. Electroluminescence emission spectra were recorded at room-temperature. Due to the resonant cavity effect, 400 μm-diameter SLS RCLEDs exhibited emission spectra peaked at 4.587 μm with a narrow spectral linewidth of 52 nm. A high-spectral intensity of >3 mW cm−2 nm−1 was achieved for the 400 μm SLS RCLED using 1% duty cycle to avoid Joule heating. Furthermore, temperature dependence of the emission spectra of the RCLED showed excellent temperature stability, with a rate of 0.34 nm/K. Compared to existing mid-infrared 5-stage InAs/GaAsSb SLS ICLEDs operating at ∼4.5 μm, the (400 μm-diameter) InAs/GaAsSb SLS RCLEDs exhibited 10.5× brighter spectral intensity, 14× narrower spectral linewidth, and 8× improvement in the temperature stability. Owing to these attractive features, our SLS RCLEDs could be used to develop the next generation CO gas instruments and active imaging.