Stimulated emission from single- and multiple-quantum-well GaN-AlGaN separate-confinement heterostructures

Stimulated emission characteristics are examined for GaN-AlGaN separate-confinement quantum-well heterostructures grown by MOVPE on 4H-SiC substrates. We specifically focus on comparison of structures with different quantum well active region designs. Polarization resolved edge emission spectra and stimulated emission thresholds are obtained under optical pumping using a stripe excitation geometry. Stimulated emission characteristics are studied as a function of the number of quantum wells in the structure, and are correlated with surface photoluminescence properties. We find reduced stimulated emission thresholds and increased surface photoluminescence intensities as the number of quantum wells is reduced, with the best results obtained for a single-quantum-well structure. These results should provide useful information for the design of GaN-based quantum well lasers.