Temperature Effects in Coherent GaAs Diodes

The radiation output of GaAs coherent diodes has been studied for temperatures between 4° and 125°K. The coherent output follows the temperature variation of the band gap of pure GaAs. The threshold current follows no simple temperature dependence. It rises exponentially for temperatures below 30°K with the slope 0.9%/°K and seems to vary as T3 for T above 100°K. The temperature variation of the cavity modes is calculated, and agrees with experiment to within 5%. These results are briefly discussed in terms of a band-to-band model for the radiation.