Abstract
The work described in this thesis investigates the effects of bandstructure modifications, brought about by Landau confinement, hydrostatic pressure and uniaxial stress, on recombination processes in narrow-gap materials and laser diodes. The effects of Landau confinement on the characteristics of InSb-based emission devices operating at a wavelength of ~5mum at 77K were studied. The change in performance due to the magnetic field applied along both the cavity and the growth direction and thereby simulating quasi-quantum wire and quasi-quantum dot structures clearly demonstrated the benefits, such as reduced threshold and temperature sensitivity, gained by the reduced dimensionality. On the other hand, suppression of LO-phonon emission due to the discrete nature of the density of states was observed, for the first time, in an interband laser device. Interband recombination dynamics were studied in In1-xGaxSb and PbSe over a range of excited carrier densities and temperatures down to 30K. Detailed analysis of the results found that the Auger-1 mechanism is reduced in In1-xGaxSb as a function of Ga-fraction due to the increased bandgap energy, in good agreement with theoretical predictions. In PbSe, the Auger-1 rate was observed to dominate at low excited carrier concentrations in spite of near-mirror bands, and was found to be approximately constant between 300K and 70K and was seen to be quenched in the low temperature regime. Stimulated emission was seen to be the most efficient recombination mechanism at high excited carrier densities at low temperatures. The Auger coefficient in PbSe was found to be one to two orders of magnitude lower than for materials with a Kane band structure (Hg1-xCdxTe) with comparable bandgap. An experimental technique was developed which enables measurements at high hydrostatic pressures and high magnetic fields at low temperatures. Hydrostatic pressures were applied to a 1.5mum laser diode at different temperatures revealing the effects of pressure on the band structure and hence the laser characteristics. A visible laser diode was measured under the simultaneous application of hydrostatic pressure and uniaxial stress. The change in performance was satisfactorily explained in terms of leakage of carriers into the X-minimum in the cladding region, the process that has been suspected of being one of the major loss mechanisms in visible laser diodes. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on the condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that the copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or the University (as may be appropriate).