Room temperature operation of SiC-cooled and AlGaInP-based, red-emitting membrane external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (MECSELs)

Semiconductor membrane external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (MECSELS) [1] are laser-active gain membranes sandwiched between two transparent heat spreaders and used in transmission mode. This avoids the need of a monolithically integrated distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) as commonly used in conventional vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers. This allows for a more flexible wavelength range, combined with a potentially broader emission spectrum, while the M 2 - value is close to the theoretical limit. A first successful implementation of a semiconductor membrane laser was investigated [2] , with the laser-active semiconductor membrane bonded onto a single intra-cavity heat spreader. Yang et al. demonstrated the first silicon carbide (SiC) MECSEL emitting approximately at 1037 nm [3] . Since then, emission wavelengths at for example 780 nm [4] , 825 nm [5] , 1640 nm [6] and at 1770 nm [7] were reported.