Interfacial engineering in blue-green lasers

Although blue-green lasers based on wide-gap II-VI semiconductors have been demonstrated, the development of a viable laser technology hinges on our ability to characterize and improve the properties of a number of crucial heterostructures. Here we report studies of the structural and electronic properties of LI-VI/III-V heterostructures as well as metal/II-VI contacts. The results allowed us to propose a number of novel microscopic engineering methods. These include control of the local interface composition to tune the band discontinuities and minimize the defect density and exploitation of graded interface layers and local dipoles to reduce the specific contact resistance.