HgCdTe double heterostructure injection laser grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

While a variety of light-detecting devices have been made with HgCdTe, little has been done to apply this technology to light-emitting devices. We report here the successful fabrication and operation of the first HgCdTe injection laser. This stripe-geometry double-heterostructure laser was operated under pulsed current at temperatures between 40 and 90 K. At 77 K, the emission wavelength was 2.86 μm with a linewidth of 0.3 meV, and the pulsed threshold current density was 625 A/cm2. The double heterostructure, with a 1.4-μm-thick active layer, was grown and in situ doped by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The p+ and n+ confinement layers were doped with arsenic and indium, respectively.