Semiconductor light source with electrically tunable emission wavelength

Abstract

A semiconductor light source is disclosed comprising a substrate, lower and upper claddings, a waveguide region with imbedded active area, and electrical contacts to provide voltage necessary for the wavelength tuning. The active region includes single or several heterojunction periods sandwiched between charge accumulation layers. Each of the active region periods comprises higher and lower affinity semiconductor layers with type-II band alignment. The charge carrier accumulation in the charge accumulation layers results in electric field build-up and leads to the formation of generally triangular electron and hole potential wells in the higher and lower affinity layers. Nonequillibrium carriers can be created in the active region by means of electrical injection or optical pumping. Radiative recombination occurs between the electrons and holes, accumulated in the ground states of the triangular potential wells formed in the high- and low-affinity layers of each active region periods. The ground state energy in the triangular wells and the radiation wavelength can be tuned by changing the voltage drop across the active region.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.