Size effect caused significant reduction of thermal conductivity of GaAs/AlAs distributed Bragg reflector used in semiconductor disk laser

Abstract Thermal properties of the distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) used in the semiconductor gain element are crucial for the performance of a semiconductor disk laser (SDL). For the purpose of more reasonable semiconductor wafer design, so as to improve the thermal management of SDLs, accurate thermal conductivity value of a DBR is under considerable requirement. By the use of equilibrium molecular dynamics method, thermal conductivities of GaAs/AlAs DBRs, which are widely employed in 1 μm waveband SDLs, are calculated, and simulated results are compared with the reported experimental data. Influences of the layer thickness on the thermal conductivities of the DBR structure and the effects of Al composition on the Al x Ga 1−x As ternary alloy values are focused and analyzed.