Theoretical Analysis of Tunnel-Injected Sub-300 nm AlGaN Laser Diodes

Electrically-pumped AlGaN-based edge-emitting laser diodes with a buried tunnel junction (TJ) for sub-300 nm emission are designed in this paper. Hole injection is one of the major concerns for the design of ultraviolet (UV) lasers based on this material system. The use of a low-resistive TJ as an intracavity contact within the devices will offer an opportunity to replace highly resistive p-type AlGaN-based cladding and contact layers by their n-doped counterparts. This advanced polarization-engineered interband TJs will lead to improved hole injection and a significantly reduced threshold voltage. The thermal properties of the tunnel-injected devices are thoroughly studied theoretically. For the demonstration of continuous-wave operating lasers, possible improvements in terms of better thermal management of the device are also discussed. Our improved design allows CW-operating AlGaN lasers with a threshold current density of <; 8 kA/cm
²
and maximum optical output power of > 220 mW, yielding a wall-plug efficiency of > 2.8%.