Mid-infrared resonant cavity light emitting diodes for N2O gas detection at 45 µm

We report on a mid-infrared resonant cavity light emitting diode (RCLED) operating at the wavelength of 4.5 µm with a narrow spectral linewidth at room temperature. Compared to a reference LED without a resonant cavity, our RCLED exhibits (85x) higher peak intensity, (13x) higher integrated output power, (16x) narrower spectral linewidth and (7x) superior temperature stability. The device consists of a one-wavelength thick micro-cavity containing an Al0.12In0.88As/InAs0.85Sb0.15 quantum well active region sandwiched between two high contrast AlAs0.08Sb0.92/GaSb distributed Bragg reflector mirrors, grown lattice–matched on GaSb by molecular beam epitaxy. The high spectral brightness, narrow linewidth and superior temperature stability are attractive features, enabling these devices to be used for detection of N2O at 4.5 µm. We show that with only minor adjustments the gases CO2 (4.2 µm) and CO (4.6 µm) are also readily accessible.