Abstract

We report the measurement of significant carrier heating in double-heterostructure InGaAsP/InP 1.3 μm light emitting diodes (LED s) and discuss our results in terms of the processes which have been proposed to explain the performance characteristics of LED's and lasers fabricated from this alloy material. In particular, Auger recombination^1-3 and intervalence band absorption⁴ are two mechanisms which have been separately proposed to explain the temperature dependence of threshold and quantum efficiency for lasers and the sublinear output variation with drive current for LED's. A common feature of each of these mechanisms is the generation of hot carriers having an energy of approximately E_g with respect to the band edge (see Fig. 1a). Our results⁵ demonstrate that indeed hot carriers are being generated and in sufficient numbers to maintain the entire free carrier system at an elevated temperature with respect to the lattice.

© 1982 Optical Society of America