Studies of Heavily Strained and Strain-Compensated Type-I GaSb Based Heterostructures for Development of High Efficiency Coherent Sources Operating in the Range of 2.3 - 3.5 microns

摘要

A new class of high power continuous wave room-temperature operated GaSb-based mid-infrared lasers and laser arrays was developed. World record devices were designed and fabricated. (1) 1W CW and 5W pulsed single laser operation was achieved in 2.3-2.5 micron range. (2) 500mW continuous wave (2.5W in pulse) and 160mW continuous wave (2W in pulse) was reported for 2.7 and 2.8 micron devices, respectively. (3) Linear laser arrays operating at 2.35 microns output 1OW in continuous wave and 18.5W in quasi- continuous wave regimes. (4) It was shown that there is no fundamental limitation to increase output power level of 2-3 micron GaSb-based lasers since the role of Auger recombination is not decisive. The technology of new high power mid-infrared lasers was transferred to Sarnoff Corporation and corresponding devices are now commercially available.