Mid-infrared light sources at room temperature based on lead chalcogenides

We report on the development of epitaxial thin film materials for optical pumped light emitting devices in the wavelength range of 4-5 µm. The active layers are lead selenide (PbSe) thin films grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) on single crystalline, infrared transparent BaF2 substrates. The electrical properties of the layers were determined by van der Pauw Hall measurements. A dependency of t he PL intensity on the dopant type and carrier concentration was found. To increase the output power, layers with antireflection coatings were grown and characterized by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. A further possibility to increase the extraction efficiency is surface texturing. Infrared imaging and PL measurements at samples with different surface structures, prepared by wet chemical etching, are presented. To improve the heat dissipation, which is a problem of optical pumped devices due to the small efficiency and pump densities up to some kW/cm2, the BaF2 substrates were removed and the active layers were transferred to different heat sinks with significantly higher thermal conductivities. Afterwards the PL intensities were compared among each other.