Epi-Side-Down Mounting of Interband Cascade Lasers for Army Applications

The interband cascade laser, based on the type II energy band alignment in the InAs/GaSb material system, has great potential to meet the power and the wall plug efficiency requirements of many Army applications. However, the development of interband cascade lasers has lagged the development of InP-based quantum cascade lasers. These latter devices have recently exhibited high power, room temperature, cw operation at 3.8 m and at longer wavelengths. Only a few groups are working on the interband cascade lasers, and relatively modest progress has been made in advancing their high-temperature performance. In this paper, we describe our efforts to improve the high temperature performance of these sources using epi-sidedown mounting. See also ADM002075. Presented at the Army Science Conference (25th) held in Orlando, FL on 27-30 November 2006. The original document contains color images.