Optical gain and saturation in nitride-based laser structures

We have performed systematic studies of the optical gain and its saturation in (In, Ga)N/GaN/(Al, Ga)N laser structures that depend on the excitation density and number of quantum wells. The unsaturated gain factor which was obtained by the variable stripe-length method increases with excitation power, i.e., increasing modal gain. The gain factor also increases with a decreasing number of quantum wells, as is shown by the investigation of a series of laser structures with 3, 4, 5, and 10 quantum wells for fixed modal gain. Values up to 40 dB at 300 K were measured. Thermal activation energies obtained by temperature dependent photoluminescence measurements yield information on the influence of nonradiative recombination processes on optical gain saturation.