Impact Ionization Pumped Laser in Polar Semiconductor.
Abstract
A review is presented of a theoretical study to determine the feasibility of achieving bulk laser action in polar semiconductors, pumped by impact ionization in an applied electric field. The material of particular interest in view of past experiments is CdTe. A detailed theory of the population inversion as a function of applied field has been carried out. Novel methods have been developed to solve the Boltzmann transport equation in the high field case with polar optic phonon scattering. Upper bounds on the electron-hole generation rates as functions of the applied fields for polar semiconductors have been calculated and show reasonable agreement with the limited available experimental data. On the basis of idealized models, it is concluded that in CdTe the electron and hole distributions can be made sufficiently degenerate for laser action for applied fields in the range of about 1.1 to 2 times the threshold field for current breakdown. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0719403
Entities
People
- Donald F. Dubois
Organizations
- HRL Laboratories