Impedance independent optical carrier lifetime measurements in semiconductor lasers

We present a novel, simple, and accurate approach to determining the differential carrier lifetime in semiconductor lasers. This technique has lower crosstalk, fewer fitting parameters, and allows the lifetime to be extracted from data collected at lower frequencies than previous methods. These characteristics make our method very useful, particularly in quantum well lasers where additional high frequency poles/zeros due to capture, escape, and transport may affect the extraction of the carrier lifetime. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(98)01412-9].