Optical and mode-locking properties of InGaN/GaN based hetero-structures

Abstract

Short wavelength pulsed lasers are indispensable for high density and high speed optical data acquisition, storage and transfer applications. Passively mode-locked blue lasers are an attractive alternative for blue laser sources achieved by non-linear frequency conversion techniques. Although over the recent years it has been shown that InGaN/GaN based hetero-structures can be used as potential material for the fabrication of saturable absorbers, passive mode-locking in the blue spectral range has not been realized yet. The main reason for that is the complicated microscopic nature of InGaN/GaN materials and the difficulty to control the dynamics of photo-induced carriers which determine mode-locking properties of the material. In this work, we have characterized different InGaN based hetero-structures as potential saturable absorbers. Three different groups of the samples have been investigated: i) quantum well samples with different numbers of quantum wells grown under optimal conditions; ii)quantum well samples with modified optical properties due to different buffer layer thickness and postgrowth treatment; iii) a multilayered quantum dot sample.<br />The characterized quantum well samples exhibit relatively high optical quality and sufficiently high saturable losses (which can be controlled by alternating a number of the quantum wells). Nevertheless, they have two major disadvantages as saturable absorbers, namely, a very long absorption recovery time (in the order of a few nanoseconds) and a rather high saturation fluence. The long recovery times are not desirable for achieving a stable and self-starting mode-locking without Q-switching.<br />In order to understand the relaxation processes of photo-induced carriers that determine the absorption recovery times of the saturable absorbers, optical properties of the hetero-structures have been extensively studied by using the frequency and time resolved photo-luminescence technique. The obtained data reveal that, directly after excitation into free states, the photo-induced carriers relax very fast to the localized states with different localization energies. The main processes that cause further relaxation are energy transfer between the different localized states, relaxation to lower lying defect states, and recombination. The density of defects and dislocations was found to play a crucial role in the relaxation dynamics. Since in the case of multiple quantum well samples grown under optimal conditions, number of defects and dislocations is rather limited, the relaxation is dominated by recombination from the localized excitonic states which causes rather long absorption recovery times.<br />By using different spectroscopic techniques, we have investigated the modified QW samples, designed to speed up the relaxation of photo-induced carriers. These multiple quantum well samples have been modified by introducing additional defects in two different ways: i) the samples were grown with substantially thinner buffer layers; ii) the samples grown under optimal conditions were bombarded by an ion beam. In the case of first modification, substantially shorter absorption recovery times (in the order of a few tens of picoseconds) have been measured and the saturation fluence was found to be slightly decreased. However, the optical quality of the samples has degraded severely, which makes the heterostructures unsuitable for mode-locking applications. In the case of multiple quantum well hetero-structure grown under optimal conditions and after treated by the ion bombardment, the absorption recovery times have been slightly reduced while an optical quality of the sample remained unchanged. This reveals that the modification of optical properties of InGaN based hetero-structures by ion bombardment is a promising approach to improve the performance of such absorbers.<br />Quantum dot-based hetero-structure was identified to be significantly superior to the QW hetero-structures discussed above, in terms of mode-locking properties. It exhibits rather a good optical quality, high saturable losses, substantially lower saturation fluence and rather fast absorption recovery time. Frequency resolved pump probe measurements revealed that the quantum dot hetero-structure can be used in a relatively broad spectral range. Furthermore, by studying the dynamics of photo-induced carriers in the quantum dot hetero-structure a very interesting phenomenon has been observed. Namely, the dynamics of the photo-induced carriers in the quantum dot heterostructure have been found to be very strongly influenced by excitation energy, wavelength and repetition rate which was attributed to the effect of local heating.<br />This, to our knowledge, is one of the first such extensive studies of the dependence of optical properties of the InGaN quantum dot hetero-structures on excitation conditions.<br />