Room-temperature stimulated emission at 3.67  µm from Auger-optimized HgCdTe quantum well heterostructures

HgCdTe-based heterostructures with quantum wells are a promising material for semiconductor lasers in the atmospheric transparency window (3-5 µm) thanks to the possibility of suppressing Auger recombination. In this work, we demonstrate room temperature stimulated emission at 3.67 µm wavelength from HgCdTe heterostructures with quantum wells under optical pumping. We experimentally determine the temperature dependence of effective Auger coefficient in the studied structures and reveal its unusual non-monotonous behavior which is explained by the interplay between activated and non-threshold Auger processes. The performance of the studied samples appears comparable to those of non-cascade III-V type-I QW laser sources, and so interband HgTe/CdHgTe QW lasers mark another step toward integrated mid-IR range HgCdTe optoelectronic devices.