High-power mid-IR type-II interband cascade lasers

John D. Bruno; Rui Q. Yang; John L. Bradshaw; John T. Pham; Donald E. Wortman

doi:10.1117/12.391912

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18 July 2000 High-power mid-IR type-II interband cascade lasers

John D. Bruno, Rui Q. Yang, John L. Bradshaw, John T. Pham, Donald E. Wortman

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Proceedings Volume 4042, Enabling Photonic Technologies for Aerospace Applications II; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.391912
Event: AeroSense 2000, 2000, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

Type-II interband cascade (IC) lasers take advantage of the broken-gap alignment in type-II quantum wells to reuse electrons for sequential photon emissions for serially connected active regions. Here, we describe recent advances in InAs/GaInSb type-II IC lasers at emission wavelengths of 3.6 - 4 micrometers ; these semiconductor lasers have exhibited significantly higher differential quantum efficiencies and peak powers than previously reported. Low threshold current densities (e.g., approximately 56 /A/cm² at 80 K) and power efficiency exceeding 9% were observed from a mesa- stripe laser in cw operation. Also, these lasers were able to operate at temperatures up to 250 K in pulsed mode and 127 K in cw mode. We observed from several devices at temperatures above 80 K, slope efficiencies exceeding 1 W/A/facet, corresponding to a differential external quantum efficiency exceeding 600%. A peak optical output power of approximately 6 W/facet was observed from a type-II IC laser at 80 K.

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John D. Bruno, Rui Q. Yang, John L. Bradshaw, John T. Pham, and Donald E. Wortman "High-power mid-IR type-II interband cascade lasers", Proc. SPIE 4042, Enabling Photonic Technologies for Aerospace Applications II, (18 July 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.391912

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