High-Power Semiconductor Laser in the 3.0- to 3.5-um Spectral Range

This STTR phase I project aims to develop a novel material system for muti-Watt level, Room Temperature 3.0 to 3.5 micron Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) utilizing our state-of-art in house Mod Gen II molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system. Due to their bi-polar nature and the exponentially increasing nature of Auger process with wavelength, laser diodes (LDs) has failed to demonstrate high performance short wavelength mid-IR lasing. On the other hand, due to the uni-polar nature, QCLs have shown excellent performance in the range of 4.5 micron and longer wavelength. With the help of InGaAs/AlInAs/InP material system, 3.4 W lasing at 4.8 micron is obtained operating at RT in CW mode. However, due to the conduction band offset (CBO) limitation, this material system cannot offer Watt-level lasers shorter than near 4.5 micron. To make up the vacancy of high performance short wavelength mid-IR semiconductor lasers, We propose an new approach that will enable muti-Watt level, Room Temperature 3.0 to 3.5 micron QCLs. In Phase I, we will demonstrate QCLs operating in pulsed mode. In Phase II, we will optimize the design and parameter to realize Watt-level QCLs operating in the wavelength range of 3.0 to 3.5 micron at RT.