Short wavelength (/spl lambda//spl sim/4.3 μm) high-performance continuous-wave quantum-cascade lasers

We report continuous-wave (CW) operation of a 4.3-μm quantum-cascade laser from 80 K to 313 K. For a high-reflectivity-coated 11-μm-wide and 4-mm-long laser, CW output powers of 1.34 W at 80 K and 26 mW at 313 K are achieved. At 298 K, the CW threshold current density of 1.5 kA/cm² is observed with a CW output power of 166 mW and maximum wall-plug efficiency of 1.47%. The CW emission wavelength varies from 4.15 μm at 80 K to 4.34 μm at 298 K, corresponding to a temperature-tuning rate of 0.87 nm/K. The beam full-width at half-maximum values for the parallel and the perpendicular far-field patterns are 26/spl deg/ and 49/spl deg/ in CW mode, respectively.