High-speed 405-nm superluminescent diode (SLD) with 807-MHz modulation bandwidth.

III-nitride LEDs are fundamental components for visible-light communication (VLC). However, the modulation bandwidth is inherently limited by the relatively long carrier lifetime. In this letter, we present the 405 nm emitting superluminescent diode (SLD) with tilted facet design on semipolar GaN substrate, showing a broad emission of ~9 nm at 20 mW optical power. Owing to the fast recombination (τ_e<0.35 ns) through the amplified spontaneous emission, the SLD exhibits a significantly large 3-dB bandwidth of 807 MHz. A data rate of 1.3 Gbps with a bit-error rate of 2.9 × 10^-3 was obtained using on-off keying modulation scheme, suggesting the SLD being a high-speed transmitter for VLC applications.