Electrically pumped continuous-wave vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers at ∼2.6 μm

In this paper, electrically pumped GaSb-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers operating continuous wave at a record long emission wavelength of similar to 2.6 mu m are presented. Owing to the excellent thermal heat management, the devices exhibit single-mode operation up to a heat-sink temperature of 55 degrees C. Lateral current confinement and index guiding in the device are accomplished by utilizing the buried tunnel junction concept. Devices with aperture diameters of 6 mu m show maximum output powers of 0.3 mW at room temperature with quantum efficiencies around 10%. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3240406]