Above-room-temperature mid-infrared lasing from vertical-cavity surface-emitting PbTe quantum-well lasers

Above-room-temperature operation of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers emitting in the mid-infrared is reported. The stimulated emission is generated in PbTe quantum wells embedded in two-wavelength microcavities by optically pumping with fs laser pulses. The spectrum of the laser modes is broadened and blue-shifted due to dynamic band filling. The intensity of the mid-infrared emission and the laser threshold depends on the energy of the microcavity resonance. At a wavelength of 3.1 mum, laser operation is obtained up to a temperature of 65 degreesC, limited by nonradiative recombination processes. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.