Continuous wave optically pumped lead-salt mid-infrared quantum-well vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Abstract

Continuous wave optically pumped mid-infrared lead-salt quantum-well vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with an eleven-period PbSe/PbSrSe quantum-well active region are demonstrated. The cw emissions are observed up to 230 K at the emission wavelengths around 4.03 m. The lowest threshold pump density of 2.6 kW/cm 2 appears at 190 K, 65°C lower than that of the pulsed measurements. This indicates the temperature difference between the active region and the heat sink of the episide-up mounted on-wafer testing under cw pumping.

Mid-Infrared Surface-Emitting Two Dimensional Photonic Crystal Semiconductor Lasers

“…Recently, the most competitive mid-IR semiconductor lasers are realized with GaAs-and GaSb-based III-V material system making use of their unique intersubband (Bauer, et al, 2011;Yu, Darvish, Evans, Nguyen, Slivken, & Razeghi, 2006;Slivken, Evans, Zhang, & Razeghi, 2007) and inter-band (Yang R. Q., 1995;Yang, Bradshaw, Bruno, Pham, Wortman, & Tober, 2002) cascade transition mechanisms. Meanwhile, thanks to their suppressed Auger non-radiative loss, (Zhao, Wu, Majumdar, & Shi, 2003) IV-VI lead-salt materials have also been an excellent choice of mid-IR lasers for gas sensing application, and will continue to be so in the future. (Springholz, Schwarzl, & Heiss, 2006) In the following, we will introduce the development of mid-IR surface emitting photonic crystal lasers using all mentioned intersubband cascade, type-II "W" active region III-V semiconductors, and leadsalt materials.…”

Narrow spectral band monolithic lead-chalcogenide-on-Si mid-IR photodetectors

“…(2) Distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) with high reflectivities are easily obtained with only a few k/4 quarter wavelengths layer pairs with alternating high (H) and low (L) refractive indices. Typical combinations are PbEuSe/EuSe [6] or PbEuSe/BaF 2 [7]. This is because the refractive index of the H layer (PbEuSe) is as high as n H ffi 5, while that of the L layers are low (n L = 2.4 for EuSe, n L = 1.43 for BaF 2 ).…”

Theoretical analysis of optical gain in PbSe/Pb1–xSrxSe quantum well lasers

“…For this kind of materials, the conduction and the valence band extrema are located at the L ‐point in the Brillouin zone, and their direct energy gaps can be tuned within mid‐infrared and far‐infrared regions in their ternary and quaternary alloys. The nonradiative Auger recombination rate in these compounds is one or two orders below that of III–V and IV–VI narrow gap semiconductor materials since the absence of a heavy‐hole band 3. Meanwhile, the fourfold L ‐valley degeneracy can be lifted when IV–VI quantum well (QW) structures are grown along [111] direction, which results in an easier population inversion for one valley than other three.…”

“…PbSe‐based lead salts are among the most promising materials for mid‐infrared lasers 3, 6–10. Double heterostructure (DH) diode lasers from PbSe/Pb 1– x Sr x Se material system have achieved an operation temperature up to 169 K in continuous wave (CW) mode and up to 290 K in pulsed mode 6.…”