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A design for midinfrared diode lasers based on interband type-II miniband-to-bound state transitions is proposed and has been demonstrated experimentally. Type-II miniband-to-bound state laser structures emitting at 3.25 mu with active regions consisting of 5 and 10 W periods were grown by solid-source molecular-beam epitaxy and processed into ridge waveguide lasers. Substrate-side down mounted devices with a 10 period active region and uncoated facets could be operated in continuous-wave (cw) mode up to 185 K and as high as 260 K in pulsed mode. A high characteristic temperature of 100 K has been achieved for heat-sink temperatures below 140 K, decreasing to 33 K for the 140 to 185 K interval. At 110 K, a 5 period laser structure exhibited a threshold current density of 177 A/cm2and a slope efficiency of 61 mW/A. Single-ended output powers of 144 mW in cw mode and exceeding 330 mW in pulsed operation were obtained for a substrate-side down mounted 5 period diode laser with high-reflection/antireflection coated mirror facets, operated at 110 K.

We report on the demonstration of continuous-wave (CW) operation of GaInAs-AlGaAsSb quantum cascade (QC) lasers. By placing a 2.5-/spl mu/m-thick gold layer on both sides of the laser ridge to extract heat from the active region in the lateral direction, together with mounting the device epilayer down, we have achieved CW operation of GaInAs-AlGaAsSb QC lasers composed of 25 stages of active/injection regions. The maximum CW operating temperature of the lasers is 94 K, and the emission wavelength is around /spl lambda//spl sim/4.65 /spl mu/m. For a device with the size of 10/spl times/2000 /spl mu/m/sup 2/, the CW optical output power per facet is 13 mW at 42 K and 4 mW at 94 K. The CW threshold current density is 1.99 kA/cm/sup 2/ at 42 K, and 2.08 kA/cm/sup 2/ at 94 K, respectively.

Strained triple-quantum-well, large-optical-cavity GaInSb/AlGaAsSb/GaSb diode lasers emitting at 1.98 mum at 300 K are investigated with regard to their high-power capability. As the heating of the active region is a limiting factor for these devices, a quantitative model is derived to simulate the performance of these lasers including thermal effects. The standard laser parameters, deduced from measurements on ridge waveguide lasers, and the measured thermal resistance of the mounted devices were then taken as input parameters. The output power and power efficiency of the lasers calculated using the presented model. Good agreement was found between calculated data and the measurements for different heatsink temperatures as well as for different laser geometries and mounting techniques. The maximum output power achieved for p-side down mounted 1000 X 150 mum2 broad-area laser was 1.7 W at 300 K in cw operation.