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Updated: Mar 9, 2026
Characterizing Far-infrared Laser Emissions and the Measurement of Their Frequencies
Published on: December 18, 2015
II-VI Quantum Cascade emitters in the 6-8μm range
Thor A Garcia1, Joel De Jesus2, Arvind P Ravikumar3
1Department of Chemistry, The City College of New York, 85 St. Nicolas Terrace, New York, New York 10031 USA; The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York 10016, USA.
Abstract:
We present the growth and characterization of ZnCdSe/ZnCdMgSe quantum cascade (QC) heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and designed to operate at 6-8μm. These structures utilize the better-understood ZnCdMgSe with InP lattice matched compositions yielding a bandgap of 2.80 eV as compared to previous work which used ZnCdMgSe compositions with bandgaps at 3.00 eV. Grown structures posses good structural and optical properties evidenced in X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence studies. Fabricated mesa devices show temperature dependent I-V measurements with differential resistance of 3.6 Ω, and a turn on voltage of 11V consistent with design specifications. Electroluminescence was observed in these devices up to room temperature with emission centered at 7.1 μm and line widths of ∼16%(ΔE/E) at 80K. The results show that these are well-behaved electroluminescent structures. Addition of waveguide layers and further improvements in well barrier interfaces are being pursued in efforts to demonstrate lasing.
