C. L. Felix

Continuous-wave operation of λ=3.25 μm broadened-waveguide W quantum-well diode lasers up to T=195 K

Mid-infrared (λ=3.25 μm) broadened-waveguide diode lasers with active regions consisting of 5 type-II “W” quantum wells operated in continuous-wave (cw) mode up to 195 K. At 78 K, the threshold current density was 63 A/cm2, and up to 140 mW of cw output power was generated. A second structure with ten quantum wells operated up to 310 K in pulsed mode.

Near-room-temperature mid-infrared interband cascade laser

A 25-stage interband cascade laser with a W active region and a third hole quantum well for the suppression of leakage current has exhibited lasing in pulsed mode up to 286 K. A peak output power of 160 mW/facet and a slope efficiency of 197 mW/A per facet (1.1 photons per injected electron) were measured at 196 K. Above 200 K, the characteristic temperature was higher (T0=53 K) and the threshold current densities lower than for a previously reported W interband cascade laser without the third hole quantum well.

Auger coefficients in type-II InAs/Ga1−xInxSb quantum wells

Two different approaches, a photoconductive response technique and a correlation of lasing thresholds with theoretical threshold carrier concentrations have been used to determine Auger lifetimes in InAs/GaInSb quantum wells. For energy gaps corresponding to 3.1–4.8 μm, the room-temperature Auger coefficients for seven different samples are found to be nearly an order-of-magnitude lower than typical type-I results for the same wavelength. The data imply that at this temperature, the Auger rate is relatively insensitive to details of the band structure.

High-temperature continuous-wave 3–6.1 μm “W” lasers with diamond-pressure-bond heat sinking

Optically pumped type-II W lasers emitting in the mid-infrared exhibited continuous-wave (cw) operating temperatures of 290 K at λ=3.0 μm and 210 K at λ=6.1 μm. Maximum cw output powers for 78 K were 260 mW at λ=3.1 μm and nearly 50 mW at λ=5.4 μm. These high maximum temperatures were achieved through the use of a diamond-pressure-bonding technique for heat sinking the semiconductor lasers. The thermal bond, which is accomplished through pressure alone, permits topside optical pumping through the diamond at wavelengths that would be absorbed by the substrate.

Above-room-temperature optically pumped midinfrared W lasers

We report temperature-dependent pulsed lasing performance, internal losses, and Auger coefficients for optically pumped type-II W lasers with wavelengths in the range of 3.08–4.03 μm at room temperature. All lased to at least 360 K, and produced 1.5–5 W peak power at 300 K. Internal losses at 100 K were as low as 10 cm−1, but increased to 90–360 cm−1 at 300 K. Room temperature Auger coefficients varied from 5×10−28 cm6/s at the shortest wavelength to 3×10−27 cm6/s at the longest.

IV–VI compound midinfrared high-reflectivity mirrors and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers grown by molecular-beam epitaxy

Midinfrared broadband high-reflectivity Pb1−xSrxSe/BaF2 distributed Bragg reflectors and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with PbSe as the active material were grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. Because of an extremely high index contrast, mirrors with only three quarter-wave layer pairs had reflectivities exceeding 99%. For pulsed optical pumping, a lead salt VCSEL emitting at the cavity wavelength of 4.5–4.6 μm operated nearly to room temperature (289 K).

ROLE OF INTERNAL LOSS IN LIMITING TYPE-II MID-IR LASER PERFORMANCE

We report an experimental and theoretical investigation of internal losses in optically pumped type-II lasers with InAs/GaSb/Ga1−xInxSb/GaSb superlattice active regions. Whereas the losses are found to be moderate at 100 K (11–14 cm−1), they increase rapidly with increasing temperature (to 50–120 cm−1 at 200 K). Comparison with a detailed numerical simulation shows that the internal losses play a much more important role than Auger recombination or carrier/lattice heating in limiting the laser performance at high temperatures. Calculations of the temperature-dependent intervalence absorption cross sections show that losses of the magnitude observed experimentally can easily occur if one does not take special care to avoid resonances in all regions of the Brillouin zone. Practical design guidelines are presented. The superlattice lasers yield maximum peak output powers of up to 6.5 W per facet at 100 K and 3.5 W per facet at 180 K, threshold incident pump intensities as low as 340 W/cm2 at 100 K, and Shock...

High-temperature 4.5-/spl mu/m type-II quantum-well laser with Auger suppression

Laser emission at 4.2-4.5 /spl mu/m has been observed at temperatures up to 310 K in pulsed optical pumping experiments on type-II quantum-well (QW) lasers with four constituents in each period (InAs-Ga/sub 1-x/In/sub x/Sb-InAs-AlSb). The characteristic temperature, T/sub 0/, is 41 K, and a peak output power exceeding 2 W/facet is observed at 200 K. The power conversion efficiency per facet of /spl ap/0.2% up to 200 K is within a factor of 2 of the theoretical value. The 300 K Auger coefficient of 4/spl times/10/sup -27/ cm/sup 6//s extracted from the threshold pump intensity demonstrates that Auger losses have been suppressed by a factor of four.

Midinfrared vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

We report a type-II antimonide midinfrared vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. The emission wavelength of 2.9 μm is nearly independent of temperature (dλ/dT≈0.07 nm/K) and the multimode linewidth is quite narrow (3.5 nm). The pulsed threshold power at 86 K is as low as 22 mW for a 30 μm spot. Lasing is observed up to T=280 K, and the peak output power from a 600 μm spot exceeds 2 W up to 260 K. The differential power conversion efficiency is >1% at 220 K.

Negative luminescence from type-II InAs/GaSb superlattice photodiodes

Strong negative luminescence is displayed by type-II InAs/GaSb superlattice diodes under reverse bias. The negative emittance at room temperature is as high as 1.5 μW/cm2 meV at 4.9 μm, and the negative efficiency at 3.5 μm is 41% of the emission from a perfect blackbody at that temperature. The main features of the data are reproduced by a detailed photodiode simulation.