Spontaneous Emission And Gain in Gaalas Quantum Well Lasers

We report on measurements of spontaneous emission over a wide range of carrier densities from a GaAlAs quantum well laser diode. From these data, information on the optical gain and linewidth enhancement factor is obtained. a simple model is developed which describes the important features in our measurements. Comparison of the model to our measurements allows quantitative information about bandgap shrinkage and lifetime broadening to be obtained. © 1991 IEEE.