Compound Cavity Gain of Tandem-Electrode Multiple-Quantum-Well AlGaAs Laser Diodes

The compound cavity gain of multiple-quantum well AlGaAs semiconductor lasers with segmented contacts was measured in detail. A second peak of the gain curve is observed. We discuss the impact of the individual features of gain and absorption on the characteristics of the laser diode and demonstrate that, by changing the bias conditions, these features can be used to produce spectral switching of the lasing wavelength by more than 10 nm. © 1994 IEEE