Tunability of optical gain (SWIR region) in type-II In0.70Ga0.30As/GaAs0.40Sb0.60 nano-heterostructure under high pressure

The interest in applying an external pressure on a nano-heterostructure is to attempt to extract more information about the electronic structure through distortion of the electronic structure. This paper reports the tunability of the optical gain under the high pressure effect in M-shaped type-II In0.70Ga0.30As/GaAs0.40Sb0.60 symmetric lasing nano-heterostructure designed for SWIR generation. In order to simulate the optical gain, the heterostructure has been modeled with the help of six band k.p method. The 6×6 diagonalized k.p Hamiltonian has been solved to evaluate the valence sub-bands (i.e. light and heavy hole energies); and then optical matrix elements and optical gain within TE (Transverse Electric) mode has been calculated. For the injected carrier density of 5×1012/cm2, the optimized optical gain within TE mode is as high as ~9000/cm at the wavelength of ~1.95 µm, thus providing a very important alternative material system for the generation of SWIR wavelength region. The application of very high pressure (2, 5 and 8 GPa) on the structure along [110] direction shows that the gain as well as lasing wavelength both approach to higher values. Thus, the structure can be tuned externally by the application of high pressure within the SWIR region.