Multitype Quantum Well Semiconductor Membrane External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers for Widely Tunable Continuous Wave Operation.

Membrane external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (MECSELs) represent a cutting-edge approach in pushing the performance boundaries of vertically emitting semiconductor lasers. The fundamental concept of employing an extremely thin gain membrane, spanning from hundreds of nanometers to a few micrometers in thickness and sandwiched between transparent heat spreaders, introduces novel opportunities through uniform double-sided optical pumping and enhanced heat dissipation from the active region. Additionally, these advantages of MECSELs facilitate more intricate band gap engineering possibilities for the active region by integrating multiple types of quantum wells (QWs) into a single laser gain structure.

2.8-µm polarization-maintaining Er fiber laser mode-locked by a GaSb-based SESAM.

A GaSb-based SEmiconductor Saturable Absorber Mirror (SESAM) enables continuous-wave picosecond mode-locked operation with excellent stability of a polarization-maintaining mid-infrared Er:ZBLAN fiber laser. The GaSb-based SESAM mode-locked fiber laser delivers an average output power of 190 mW at 2.76 µm at a repetition rate of 32.

Bridging the gap between surface physics and photonics.

Use and performance criteria of photonic devices increase in various application areas such as information and communication, lighting, and photovoltaics. In many current and future photonic devices, surfaces of a semiconductor crystal are a weak part causing significant photo-electric losses and malfunctions in applications. These surface challenges, many of which arise from material defects at semiconductor surfaces, include signal attenuation in waveguides, light absorption in light emitting diodes, non-radiative recombination of carriers in solar cells, leakage (dark) current of photodiodes, and light reflection at solar cell interfaces for instance.

Low-loss operation of silicon-on-insulator integrated components at 2.6-2.7 µm.

Development of mid-infrared photonics is gaining attention, driven by a multitude of sensing applications requiring increasingly compact and cost-effective photonics systems. To this end, low-loss operation of µm-scale silicon-on-insulator photonic integration elements is demonstrated for the 2.6-2.

Influence of the Bismuth Content on the Optical Properties and Photoluminescence Decay Time in GaSbBi Films.

We report the optical properties of GaSbBi layers grown on GaSb (100) substrates with different bismuth contents of 5.8 and 8.0% Bi.