Scientists and engineers are pursuing a variety of semiconductor systems to generate mid-infrared (3-5 µm) laser radiation for applications in environmental monitoring, homeland security, and medical diagnostics. Antimonide-based semiconductor heterostructures have proven to be a very promising approach in this wavelength range, with notable recent advances in interband cascade lasers. However, there remain challenges in this system in achieving excellent performance at high operating temperatures that can ultimately lead to development of practical mid-infrared chemical sensors at ambient temperatures with low power requirements. Recent results in optical pumping of quantum-engineered antimonide-based semiconductor lasers will be presented, including semiconductor lasers with integrated two-dimensional graphene transparent contacts. Biomedical and sensing applications and future research opportunities at Baylor also will be discussed.
