Developments in lead-salt diode lasers

Lead-chalcogenide diode lasers are useful as mid-infrared sources (2-1/2 <λ<30 μm), but have generally operated CW below 100K. A new materials system, PbEuSeTe, has been used to fabricate diode lasers operating from 10K (at 6.5 μm wavelength) up to 174K CW (at 4.4 μm) and up to 280K pulsed (at 3.8 μm). These are large optical cavity single quantum well devices grown by molecular beam epitaxy. These are currently the highest diode laser operating temperatures ever achieved at these wavelengths to our knowledge. Single ended output powers as high as 1 mW single mode (5 mW multimode) have been attained from mesa stripe diodes. These characteristics make these devices attractive for long wavelength fiber optic sensor/communications systems. The performance limits of these devices are discussed