The out-diffusion of In from strained InGaAs quantum-wells, and into adjacent GaAs barriers, was studied in degraded 980nm-wavelength strained quantum-well lasers. A previous calculation of misfit stress-induced compositional instability had indicated that this system was stable with respect to misfit strain. It was therefore concluded that the out-diffusion of In from an InGaAs quantum-well was driven mainly by a compositional discontinuity across the well/barrier hetero-interfaces, and was believed to be activated by the non-radiative recombination of injected carriers.

Generic Degradation Mechanism for 980nm InGaAs/GaAs Strained Quantum-Well Lasers. S.N.G.Chu, N.Chand, W.B.Joyce, P.Parayanthal, D.P.Wilt: Applied Physics Letters, 2001, 78[21], 3166-8