Mapping of current and heat flows in IR light-emitting devices and lasers

High spatial resolution infrared (3-5 and 8-12 micrometers ) scanning microscopy study shows that light and heat signatures of conventional planar light emitting diodes for 3-5 micrometers spectral range. (InGaAs, InAs, InAsSb) are drastically affected by current crowding effect. As a result, Joule heating causes unavoidable heat traps in the vicinity of point contact (those are most pronounced in substrate down structures), whereas large uniform emitting areas are difficult to produce. Contrary to this, emitters based on magnetoconcentration effect (InSb) are free of current crowding and could be made of larger areas (of some mm2). For the diode stripe (width of 100 micrometers ) lasers (AlGaAs/GaAs, InGaAsP) we show that heat concentrates at lateral stripe sides that are difficult to penetrate. Some details of an infrared micromapping system characterized by 20 micrometers spatial resolution and 10 microsecond(s) time resolved interval are also given.