Above-room-temperature continuous-wave mid-infrared photoluminescence from PbSe/PbSrSe quantum wells

Abstract

Strong photoluminescence between 3 and 4 μm was observed at temperatures as high as 55 °C from PbSe/PbSrSe multiple-quantum-well structures grown on BaF2 (111) substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy. Fabry–Perot interference fringes dominated the spectra, indicating that the luminescence was primarily due to stimulated emission processes. Peak emission energies were determined by fitting Gaussian functions to the spectra, and they showed that emission energies at 25 °C decreased from 402 to 312 meV as quantum-well thickness increased from 40 to 200 Å. The temperature tuning coefficient was also observed to decrease from 0.400 meV/K for a 200 Å multiple-quantum-well sample to 0.313 meV/K for a 40 Å multiple-quantum-well sample.