High-temperature, high-power, continuous-wave operation of buried heterostructure quantum-cascade lasers

We report cw operation of buried heterostructure quantum-cascade lasers (λ=6 μm) using a thick electroplated Au top contact layer and epilayer-up bonding on a copper heat sink up to a temperature of 333 K (60 °C). The high cw optical output powers of 446 mW at 293 K, 372 mW at 298 K, and 30 mW at 333 K are achieved with threshold current densities of 2.19, 2.35, and 4.29 kA/cm2 respectively, for a high-reflectivity-coated, 9-μm-wide and 3-mm-long laser.