Bewley William W, Canedy Chadwick L, Kim Chul Soo, Kim Mijin, Merritt Charles D, Abell Joshua, Vurgaftman Igor, Meyer Jerry R
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA.
Opt Express. 2012 Jan 30;20(3):3235-40. doi: 10.1364/OE.20.003235.
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.
