Revealing the effects of nitrogen on threshold current density in GaNxAsyP1−x−y/GaP/AlzGa1−zP type I QW laser structures by hydrostatic pressure

•Energy bands and effective mass of free carriers are improved by N incorporation.•Effects of AlzGa1-zP cladding layer to optical confinement factor are investigated.•Transparency and threshold carrier concentrations are investigated under pressure.•Pressure dependence of current density is investigated and compared to experiments.

We present a comprehensive theoretical analysis of threshold current in dilute nitride direct bandgap Ga(NAsP)/GaP/AlGaP quantum wells (QW) on silicon substrates using model calculations. The pressure dependence of band structure, radiative and non-radiative recombination rates, optical confinement factor, transparency- and threshold-carrier densities are calculated in a range of 0–1 GPa at room temperature. The effect of aluminium incorporation into cladding-layer Gallium Phosphide (GaP) with the employed five-layer slab waveguide model is considered and we have shown that incorporation of Aluminium (Al) into cladding-layer GaP increases the photon confinement in well layer. It is found that incorporation of Nitrogen (N) into GaAsP reduces the non-radiative Auger recombination rates which brings an improvement in threshold current. The comparison of our calculated results with that of the experimental data indicates that the Auger effect involving CHCC process can be considered as the dominant non-radiative loss mechanism at 300 K.