Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser sources for gas detection

The molecular beam epitaxy growth conditions of a GaInAsSb/AlGaAsSb multi-quantum wells stack have been successfully optimised. This included minimising the full-width at half-maximum of the high resolution X-ray diffraction satellites and maximising the photoluminescence peak intensity collected at room temperature. Then, the optimised gain structures were successfully inserted in a) a microcavity and b) an external-cavity Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser. In both cases, room temperature laser operation near 2.3 μm in the continuous wave regime, with a circular single transverse mode output beam, was demonstrated. An output power larger than 1 mW at room temperature was measured.