This letter shows an experimentally studied approach that increases injection efficiency of high-power laser thyristors emitting in the 890–910 nm spectral band. The developed laser thyristors exhibit 43-W maximum peak output power of laser pulses at 95-nm full width at half maximum duration. At the same time, the maximum amplitude of the current pulse generated in the laser-thyristor circuit reached 90 A.

AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures are the base of many semiconductor devices. The fabrication of new types of devices demands heterostructures with special features, such as large total thickness (~20 μm), ultrathin layers (~1 nm), high repeatability (up to 1000 periods) and uniformity, for which a conventional approach of growing such heterostructures is insufficient and the development of new growth procedures is needed. This article summarizes our work on the metalorganic vapour-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) growth of AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures for modern infrared devices. The growth approaches presented allow for the improved output characteristics of different emitting devices such as multi active region lasers, epitaxially integrated via highly doped tunnel junctions (emission wavelength λ ~ 1 μm), quantum cascade lasers (λ ~10 μm) and THz laser (λ ~100 μm), based on short-period superlattice with 500–2000 layers.

The effect of a local current turn-on in the heterostructure plane has been observed for low-voltage lasers-thyristors. It was shown that the spatial dynamics of the current-turn-on region is determined by the blocking voltage and the control current amplitude. For the first mode (blocking voltages up to 15 V), the current nonuniformity in the heterostructure plane is determined by the flux distribution of the spontaneous emission from the active region in the laser part to the side of the p-base of the phototransistor part of the heterostructure. The transition to the second mode (blocking voltages exceeding 15 V) is due to the sharp rise in the generation rate of excess carriers in the p-base of the phototransistor part of the heterostructure. In this case, the size of the region in which the original current turn-on occurs decreases to 70 μm. It was found that the rate at which the current-turn-on region expands depends on the working conditions of the laser part of the laser-thyristor and is 50 and 20 μm/ns for the spontaneous generation and lasing modes, respectively. It was also found that the spatial dynamics of the current determines the spatial dynamics of the laser light turn-on in the lateral waveguide and the emission efficiency in generation of short (<10 ns) laser pulses. It was demonstrated that, at low control currents, the main contribution to the decrease in the emission efficiency is made by the residual optical loss in the turned-off part of the laser-thyristor. At higher amplitudes of the control current, the emission efficiency grows due to the decrease in the residual loss in the turned-off part of the laser-thyristor, which made it possible to raise the peak power to 47 W for 100-ns laser pulses.

High-power pulse semiconductor lasers based on epitaxially integrated thyristor heterostructures were developed. The possibility of generating high-power laser light pulses with duration on the order of 100 ns at control signal amplitude on the order of 40-100 mA at extremely low turn-on thyristor voltage of 10 V was demonstrated. The values reached for the peak pulse optical power and peak pulse current were 28 W and 37 A, respectively.

A high power laser-thyristor structure providing low current-related and optical losses is developed. The possibility of controlling the lasing turn-on delay time of the laser thyristor in the 8–2600...

It is shown that the use of low-voltage GaAs/AlGaAs thyristors as high-speed and high-current switches in vertical stacks with semiconductor lasers ensures the efficient generation of high-power ns-duration laser pulses. The lasing and current dynamics in vertical stacks based on laser diode mini bar emitting at 1060 nm and a single as well as a double thyristor switch is studied. The possibility is demonstrated that a laser diode mini bar (with 3 laser emitters) together with a single thyristor switch can generate laser pulses with a peak power of 6 W with a duration of 950 ps and a peak current of 12 A for an operating voltage of 28 V. The use of a double thyristor switch leads to a broadening of the current pulse due to different delays in turn-on of the thyristor switches, while the peak power and duration of laser pulses increase to 8 W and 1.4 ns, respectively. It is found that the stage of low-speed turn-on of the thyristor limits the efficient generation of current and laser pulses of ns duration at low operating voltages (less than 21V). An efficient generation of current and laser pulses by low-voltage thyristors at control currents of 2-320 mA is ensured by efficient impact ionization in the region of the reverse biased p-n junction at high values of operating voltages (more than 21V).