Unusual increase of the Auger recombination current in 1.3 mm GaInNAs quantum-well lasers under high pressure

The pressure dependence of the total threshold current and its respective recombination components in 1.3 mm GaInNAs single-quantum-well lasers using spontaneous emission measurements up to 13 kbar is presented. We observed an unusual increase of the nonradiative Auger recombination current with increasing pressure in this material, which is opposite to those in 1.3 mm InP-based InGaAsP and AlGaInAs devices where the Auger current decreases with pressure. It is shown that the high-pressure-induced increase of the threshold current in GaInNAs is associated with the increase of the Auger current, while the defect-related monomolecular nonradiative current remains nearly unchanged in the pressure range studied. Theoretical calculations show that the unusual increase of the Auger current with pressure in GaInNAs is due to a large increase in the threshold carrier density. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1566468#