Tunable excitation of mid-infrared optically pumped semiconductor lasers

While conventional semiconductor lasers employ electrical injection for carrier excitation, optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSLs) have demonstrated high output powers and high brightness in the mid-infrared. An important consideration for optically pumped lasers is efficient absorption of the pump beam, which can be achieved through increasing the number of periods in the active region, by placing the active region in a cavity with an optical thickness of twice the pump wavelength between distributed Bragg reflectors (Optical Pumping Injection Cavity), or by periodically inserting the active quantum wells into an InGaAsSb waveguide designed to absorb the pump radiation (Integrated Absorber). A tunable optical pumping technique is utilized by which threshold intensities are minimized and efficiencies are maximized. The near-IR idler output of a Nd:YAG-pumped optical parametric oscillator (10 Hz, ~4 ns) is the tunable optical pumping source in this work. Results are presented for an OPSL with a type-II W active region embedded in an integrated absorber to enhance the absorption of the optical pump beam. Emission wavelengths range from 4.64 μm at 78 K to 4.82 μm at 190 K for optical pump wavelengths ranging from 1930-1950 nm. The effect of wavelength tuning is demonstrated and compared to single wavelength pumping (1940 nm) at a higher duty cycle (20- 30%). Comparisons are also made to other OPSLs, including a discussion of the characteristic temperature and high temperature performance of these devices.