Abstract
Interband cascade (IC) lasers take advantage of the broken-gap alignment in type-II InAs/Ga(In)Sb heterostructures to reuse electrons for sequential photon emissions from successively connected active regions; thus, they represent a new class of mid-IR light sources. In this work, we describe recent progress in IC lasers at emission wavelengths of 3.8–3.9 μm; these lasers have exhibited significantly higher differential quantum efficiencies and peak powers than previously reported. These InAs/GaInSb type-II IC lasers were able to operate at temperatures up to 217 K, which is higher than the previous record (182 K) for an IC laser at this wavelength. We observed from several devices at temperatures above 80 K a slope greater than 750 mW/A per facet, corresponding to a differential external quantum efficiency exceeding 460%. A peak optical output power exceeding 4 W/facet and peak power efficiency of ∼7% were observed from a device at 80 K. Also discussed are challenging issues related to the reduction of threshold currents and power dissipation to further advance this new class of lasers.
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