Optical-pumping injection cavity (OPIC) mid-IR "W" lasers with high efficiency and low loss

Author

Bewley, W.W. ; Felix, C.L. ; Vurgaftman, I. ; Stokes, D.W. ; Meyer, J.R. ; Lee, H. ; Martinelli, R.U.

Author_Institution

Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

12

Issue

5

fYear

2000

fDate

5/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

477

Lastpage

479

Abstract

We report an edge-emitting mid-infrared (IR) (/spl lambda/=3.3-3.7 μm) "W" laser incorporating an optical-pumping injection cavity (OPIC). The active region of the W-OPIC is sandwiched between two Bragg mirrors that significantly enhance the pump-beam absorptance at /spl lambda//sub pump/=2.098 μm. Pulsed experiments demonstrate that besides suppressing the threshold pump intensity, this design enhances the differential power conversion efficiency (e.g., 7.1% per uncoated facet at 220 K) and lowers the internal loss (e.g., 20 cm/sup -1/ at 240 K) compared with all previous optically pumped mid-IR lasers.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium compounds; indium compounds; laser cavity resonators; laser mirrors; optical pumping; quantum well lasers; 2.098 mum; 220 K; 240 K; 3.3 to 3.7 mum; 7.1 percent; Bragg mirrors; GaSb; GaSb-AlAs/sub 0.08/Sb/sub 0.92/; InAs-GaSb-InAs-AlSb; active QW region; differential power conversion efficiency; edge-emitting mid-infrared laser; internal loss; optical-pumping injection cavity mid-IR W lasers; pulsed experiments; pump-beam absorptance; threshold pump intensity suppression; Distributed Bragg reflectors; Gas lasers; Laser excitation; Mirrors; Optical losses; Optical pumping; Optical resonators; Power conversion; Pump lasers; Semiconductor lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.841258

Filename

841258