Mid-infrared InAs/InP quantum-dot lasers

Wang, Yangqian and Jia, Hui and Park, Jae-Seong and Zeng, Haotian and Marko, Igor P. and Bentley, Matthew and Hajraoui, Khalil El and Liu, Shangfeng and Yang, Bo and Dear, Calum and Bai, Mengxun and Deng, Huiwen and Chen, Chong and Yuan, Jiajing and Li, Jun and Liu, Kongming and Duffy, Dominic A. and Yan, Zhao and Wang, Zihao and Sweeney, Stephen J. and Zhuang, Qiandong and Ramasse, Quentin M. and Chen, Siming and Tang, Mingchu and Li, Qiang and Seeds, Alwyn and Liu, Huiyun (2026) Mid-infrared InAs/InP quantum-dot lasers. Light: Science and Applications, 15 (1): 64. ISSN 2095-5545

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Abstract

Mid-infrared semiconductor lasers operating in the 2.0–5.0 μm spectral range play an important role for various applications, including trace-gas detection, biomedical analysis, and free-space optical communication. InP-based quantum-well (QW) and quantum-dash (Qdash) lasers are promising alternatives to conventional GaSb-based QW lasers because of their lower cost and mature fabrication infrastructure. However, they suffer from high threshold current density (Jth) and limited operation temperatures. InAs/InP quantum-dot (QD) lasers theoretically offer lower Jth owing to their three-dimensional carrier confinement. Nevertheless, achieving high-density, uniform InAs/InP QDs with sufficient gain for lasing over 2 μm remains a major challenge. Here, we report the first demonstration of mid-infrared InAs/InP QD lasers emitting beyond 2 μm. Five-stack InAs/In0.532Ga0.468As/InP QDs grown by molecular-beam epitaxy exhibit room-temperature photoluminescence at 2.04 μm. Edge-emitting lasers achieve lasing at 2.018 μm with a low Jth of 589 A cm−2 and a maximum operation temperature of 50 °C. Notably, the Jth per layer (118 A cm−2) is the lowest ever reported for room-temperature InP-based mid-infrared lasers, outperforming QW/Qdash counterparts. These results pave the way for a new class of low-cost, high-performance mid-infrared light sources using InAs/InP QDs, marking a notable step forward in the development of mid-infrared semiconductor lasers.