Injection luminescence and laser action in epitaxial PbTe diodes

Abstract

Thin-film diode lasers have been made from Schottky barriers on epitaxial PbTe. At 77 °K the spontaneous emission spectrum agrees with that calculated for direct band-to-band transitions. At 12 °K laser action is observed in the pulsed mode with an average current density, at threshold, of (2–3) × 102 A cm−2. This is the first observation of diode laser action from evaporated thin films of any semiconductor.