Continuous-wave interband cascade lasers operating above room temperature at λ = 4.7-5.6 μm.

We have substantially improved the performance of interband cascade lasers emitting at λ = 4.7 and 5.6 μm, by applying the recently-pioneered approach of heavily doping the injector regions to rebalance the electron and hole concentrations in the active quantum wells. Ridges of ≈10 μm width, 4 mm length, and high-reflectivity back facets achieve maximum continuous wave operating temperatures of 60°C and 48°C, respectively. The threshold power density of ≈1 kW/cm2 at T = 25°C is over an order of magnitude lower than for state-of-the-art quantum cascade lasers emitting in this spectral range.

[1]  Rui Q. Yang.  Infrared laser based on intersubband transitions in quantum wells , 1995 .

[2]  I. Vurgaftman,et al.  Interband Cascade Lasers with Wavelengths Spanning 2.9 μm to 5.2 μm , 2008 .

[3]  Manijeh Razeghi,et al.  Room temperature continuous wave operation of quantum cascade lasers with 12.5% wall plug efficiency , 2008 .

[4]  Chul Soo Kim,et al.  Mid-IR Type-II Interband Cascade Lasers , 2011, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[5]  I. Vurgaftman,et al.  Rebalancing of internally generated carriers for mid-infrared interband cascade lasers with very low power consumption. , 2011, Nature communications.

[6]  William W. Bewley,et al.  Mid-infrared interband cascade lasers operating at ambient temperatures , 2009 .

[7]  Rui Q. Yang,et al.  Type-II interband quantum cascade laser at 3.8 /spl mu/m , 1997 .

[8]  William W. Bewley,et al.  Ridge-width dependence of midinfrared interband cascade laser characteristics , 2010 .

[9]  Manijeh Razeghi,et al.  Optimizing facet coating of quantum cascade lasers for low power consumption , 2011 .

[10]  William W. Bewley,et al.  Corrugated-sidewall interband cascade lasers with single-mode midwave-infrared emission at room temperature , 2009 .

[11]  Rui Q. Yang,et al.  Type-II and type-I interband cascade lasers , 1996 .

[12]  Rui Q. Yang,et al.  InAs-based plasmon-waveguide interband cascade lasers , 2010, OPTO.

[13]  Qi Jie Wang,et al.  3 W Continuous-Wave Room Temperature Single-Facet Emission From Quantum Cascade Lasers Based On Nonresonant Extraction Design Approach , 2009 .

[14]  William W. Bewley,et al.  High-power, narrow-ridge, mid-infrared interband cascade lasers , 2008 .