Optical gain improvement in type-II InGaN/GaNSb/GaN quantum well structures composed of InGaN/and GaNSb layers

Optical gain characteristics of type-II InGaN/GaNSb quantum well (QW) structure are investigated by using the multiband effective mass theory. These results are compared with those of conventional InGaN/GaN QW structures. The transition wavelength rapidly increases with increasing the Sb composition in GaNSb layer while it is less sensitive to the In composition in InGaN layer. Hence, longer wavelength QW structures with a relatively lower In composition can be easily obtained by controlling Sb composition, compared to the conventional type-I InGaN/GaN QW structures. The optical gain and the differential gain (dg/dn) of a type-II QW structure are shown to be much larger than that of a conventional QW structure in an investigated range of carrier densities. This is due to the reduction in the effective well width, in addition to the increase in the optical matrix element.