Patent EP0400559A2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0400559A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Semiconductor optical device
Assignee: Hitachi Ltd
•
Filing: 1990-05-29
•
Granted: —
•
Expires: 2010-05-29
Abstract
Abstract An improvement for a semiconductor optical device having a region in which semiconductor or carriers in the semiconductor and light interact, for example, an active region for a semiconductor laser, an optical wave guide region of an optical modulator, etc. resides in a quantum well structure comprising a well region and a barrier region. A semiconductor optical device is remarkably improved in the degree of freedom of its design such as thickness and selection of material without deteriorating the quantum effect, by introducing a super lattice super-layer structure into the barrier region of the quantum well structure or defining the strain for the well region and the barrier region.
Inventors
- 👤 Kazuhisa Uomi
- 👤 Shinji Sasaki
- 👤 Tomonobu Tsuchiya
- 👤 Naoki Chinone
- 👤 Tsukuru Ohtoshi
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-08 19:01
CPC Classifications
H; H01; H01S; H01S5/00; H01S5/30; H01S5/34; B; B82; B82Y; B82Y20/00; G; G02; G02F; G02F1/00; G02F1/01; G02F1/015; G02F1/017; H01S5/06; H01S5/062; H01S5/06209; H01S5/0622; H01S5/10; H01S5/12; H01S5/20; H01S5/22; H01S5/227; H01S5/32; H10; H10F; H10F77/00; H10F77/10; H10F77/14; H10F77/146; H10H; H10H20/00; H10H20/80; H10H20/81; H10H20/811; H10H20/812; G02F1/01708; H01S5/06213; H01S5/125; H01S5/2004; H01S5/2009; H01S5/2275; H01S5/3211; H01S5/3403; H01S5/3406; H01S5/3407; H01S5/343; H01S5/34306; H01S5/34313; H01S5/3434
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 26
Claim 1
Independent Claim
95 words
A semiconductor optical device having a quantum well structure comprising a combination of a well region and a barrier region, in which the band-edge discontinuity of a valence band is greater than the band-edge discontinuity of a conduction band, wherein said barrier region includes a super lattice thin-layer structure and a lowest energy state of a mini-band formed to said barrier region by the super lattice thin-layer structure and an effective band-edge discontinuity formed by said well region are greater on the side of the conduction band than on the side of the valence band.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
95 words
A semiconductor optical device having a quantum well structure comprising a combination of a well region and a barrier region, in which the band-edge discontinuity of a valence band is greater than the band-edge discontinuity of a conduction band, wherein said barrier region includes a super lattice thin-layer structure and a lowest energy state of a mini-band formed to said barrier region by the super lattice thin-layer structure and an effective band-edge discontinuity formed by said well region are greater on the side of the conduction band than on the side of the valence band.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
24 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 1, wherein the semiconductor device has a means for injecting carriers into said quantum well structure.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
32 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 1, wherein the super lattice thin-layer structure is constituted with a plurality of semiconductor layers each having a thickness of 0.5 to 3 nm.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
39 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 1, wherein the barrier region has a region doped with a conduction type impurity at a density of greater than 2 x 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ and lower than 1 x 10¹⁹ cm⁻³.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
58 words
A semiconductor optical device, wherein a barrier region of a multiple quantum well structure comprising a plurality of well regions and barrier regions is formed with a super lattice thin-layer structure comprising a plurality of semiconductor layers, and the mobility of carriers between said well regions is increased by a mini-band formed within the super lattice thin-layer structure.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
58 words
A semiconductor optical device, wherein a barrier region of a multiple quantum well structure comprising a plurality of well regions and barrier regions is formed with a super lattice thin-layer structure comprising a plurality of semiconductor layers, and the mobility of carriers between said well regions is increased by a mini-band formed within the super lattice thin-layer structure.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
54 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 6, wherein the energy band structure formed with the well region and the barrier region is a multiple quantum well structure in which the band-edge discontinuity on the side of the valence band is greater than the band-edge discontinuity on the side of the conduction band.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
82 words
A semiconductor optical device having a multiple quantum well structure constituted with a plurality of well regions for the recombination and light emission of carriers and barrier regions for isolating such well regions, wherein said barrier region is constituted with a super lattice thin-layer structure comprising a plurality of semiconductor layers, so that carriers in said multiple quantum well structure move between said plurality of well regions by way of a mini-band formed at the inside of said super-lattice thin layer structure.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
82 words
A semiconductor optical device having a multiple quantum well structure constituted with a plurality of well regions for the recombination and light emission of carriers and barrier regions for isolating such well regions, wherein said barrier region is constituted with a super lattice thin-layer structure comprising a plurality of semiconductor layers, so that carriers in said multiple quantum well structure move between said plurality of well regions by way of a mini-band formed at the inside of said super-lattice thin layer structure.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
54 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 7, wherein injection of holes of the valence band into the well region is facilitated by making the effective band- edge discontinuity formed with said mini-band and said well region smaller on the side of the valence band than on the side of the condition band.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
102 words
A semiconductor optical device comprising a semiconductor substrate, a laminated semiconductor structure laminated on said semiconductor substrate and having an active region for emitting light by injected carriers and a resonant cavity for feeding back and amplifying the light emitted from said active region, and a means for injecting the carriers into said active region, wherein said active region has a quantum well structure comprising a well region and as barrier region, and a super lattice thin-layer structure having well layers and barrier layers in the barrier region is disposed, so that injected carriers can be introduced easily into said well layer.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
102 words
A semiconductor optical device comprising a semiconductor substrate, a laminated semiconductor structure laminated on said semiconductor substrate and having an active region for emitting light by injected carriers and a resonant cavity for feeding back and amplifying the light emitted from said active region, and a means for injecting the carriers into said active region, wherein said active region has a quantum well structure comprising a well region and as barrier region, and a super lattice thin-layer structure having well layers and barrier layers in the barrier region is disposed, so that injected carriers can be introduced easily into said well layer.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
19 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 9, wherein the resonant cavity has a distributed feeding back structure.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
81 words
A semiconductor optical device comprising a semi-conductor substrate and an optical region formed on said semiconductor substrate and capable of interacting with an electromagnetic wave, wherein the optical region includes a super lattice structure, and the super lattice structure has a quantum well layer having a lattice constant greater that that of said semiconductor substrate and a barrier layer having a bandgap greater than that of said quantum well layer and a lattice constant smaller than that of the semiconductor substrate.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
81 words
A semiconductor optical device comprising a semi-conductor substrate and an optical region formed on said semiconductor substrate and capable of interacting with an electromagnetic wave, wherein the optical region includes a super lattice structure, and the super lattice structure has a quantum well layer having a lattice constant greater that that of said semiconductor substrate and a barrier layer having a bandgap greater than that of said quantum well layer and a lattice constant smaller than that of the semiconductor substrate.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
98 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 11, wherein when the strain Δaw for the quantum well layer is defined as: Δaw ≡ (aw - a)/a in which a is the lattice constant for the semiconductor substrate and aw is the lattice constant for the quantum well layer and when the strain ab for said barrier layer is defined as: Δab ≡ (ab - a)/a, in which ab is the lattice constant for the barrier layer, the values Δaw and Δab can respectively satisfy the following relationships: 0.005 < Δaw < 0.1 -0.1 < Δab < -0.005
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
22 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 12, wherein Δaw and Δab can satisfy the relationship: Δaw + Δab < 0.02.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
31 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 12, wherein the optical region has a multiple quantum well structure having the quantum well layers and the barrier layers successively laminated periodically.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
64 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 11, wherein the optical region is an active region for emitting light, and said semiconductor optical device further comprises a clad region for confining light from said active region, an optical feed back means for feeding back the emitted light and a current injecting means for supplying a current to said active region for emitting light.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
29 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 11, wherein the optical region is a wave guide region for propagating light and includes a grating at the vicinity thereof.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
86 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 11, wherein the device comprises an activation means for emitting light and a an optical feed back means for transmitting light from said activation means and feeding back the light to said activation means, the optical feeding back means comprises a wave guide region for propagating light, and a grating formed near said wave guide region for reflecting the propagated light and feeding back it to said activation means, and said wave guide region has said optical region.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
87 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 11, wherein when the strain Δaw for the quantum well layer is defined as: Δaw = (aw-a)/a in which a is the lattice constant for the semiconductor substrate and aw is the lattice constant for the quantum well layer and when the strain ab for the barrier layer is defined as: Δab = (ab - a)/a in which ab is the lattice constant for the barrier layer, the values for Δaw and Δab are, respectively, positive and negative values.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
21 words
A semiconductor optical device as defined in claim 11, wherein the quantum well layer is formed directly on the semiconductor substrate.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
45 words
A semiconductor optical device having an optical region capable of interacting with light wherein the optical region is constituted with a super lattice structure and said super lattice structure contains a quantum well layer having a thickness greater than the critical thickness to the strain.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
45 words
A semiconductor optical device having an optical region capable of interacting with light wherein the optical region is constituted with a super lattice structure and said super lattice structure contains a quantum well layer having a thickness greater than the critical thickness to the strain.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
Maintenance schedule is calculated for granted US utility patents.