Temperature Dependence of the Turn-On Delay Time of High-Power Lasers–Thyristors

The temperature dependence of the turn-on delay of a high-power laser–thyristor based on an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure has been studied. It was shown that the main factor responsible for the rise in the turn-on delay with increasing temperature is that the generation rate of excess carriers in the p-type base decreases in this case. The temperature dependence of the generation rate of excess carriers in the p-base of the phototransistor part of the structure is due to the change in the useful part of the spontaneous emission and in the impact-ionization rate in the space-charge region of the collector p-n junction. It was found that at low control currents, the key contribution comes from the impact ionization, which results in that a noticeable rise in the delay time is observed with increasing temperature. At high control currents, an important contribution is made by the change in the useful fraction of the absorbed spontaneous emission, which results in that there is hardly any temperature dependence of the delay time.